Re: [xmca] Youth Saving Youth

[mike cole <lchcmike@gmail.com>]

Steve. You perfectly caught a core purpose of our discussions. It is indeed
becoming obvious. To me it seems a long time in coming. And it is not
bearing a white flag. Its kind of slouching. You wrote:

 It is becoming more obvious to many that the question of cultural
difference and how these differences are socially related to can become a
life and death question.

Correct. So what, as whoever(s) we are we supposed to behave once we, as a
society, reach that state of "its obvious"?

??
mike


On Sun, Oct 10, 2010 at 5:49 AM, Steve Gabosch <stevegabosch@me.com> wrote:

> I wanted to thank Beth for her post the other day where she said:
>
>  There have been six recent suicides of US youth who were physically and
>> verbally bullied by their classmates.  This bullying was in response to
>> these teenager's perceived sexual orientation and/or gender nonconformity.
>> There have been many types of responses to these deaths, but the most
>> hopeful and powerful I've seen so far is the following, just posted by an
>> NYC  youth chorus who has decided not to the leave protection of children
>> up
>> to adults.
>>
>
> Beth provided a url to a YouTube clip of the Pride Youth chorus in NYC in
> response to these suicides (copied at the bottom).  It is an inspiring 4 or
> 5 minutes of interviews and singing.
>
> http://www.youtube.com/user/itgetsbetterproject#p/f/13/F9tSmwqpWQM
>
> As a followup, I reprint below a current AP article that offers an analysis
> of aspects of antigay harassment issues (which Beth points out also includes
> the problem of gender nonconformity) and some of the heated politics that
> are growing around this in some representative US school districts.  It is
> becoming more obvious to many that the question of cultural difference and
> how these differences are socially related to can become a life and death
> question.  The article itself focuses on school officials re-evaluating
> their compromises with the right-wing strategy of supposedly opposing
> "bullying" without addressing **who** is being bullied and harassed.
>
> - Steve
>
>
>
> Saturday, October 9, 2010
>
> By DAVID CRARY
>
> AP National Writer
> A spate of teen suicides linked to anti-gay harassment is prompting school
> officials nationwide to rethink their efforts against bullying - and in the
> process, risk entanglement in a bitter ideological debate.
>
> The conflict: Gay-rights supporters insist that any effective anti-bullying
> program must include specific components addressing harassment of gay youth.
> But religious conservatives condemn that approach as an unnecessary and
> manipulative tactic to sway young people's views of homosexuality.
>
> It's a highly emotional topic. Witness the hate mail - from the left and
> right - directed at Minnesota's Anoka-Hennepin School District while it
> reviews its anti-bullying strategies in the aftermath of a gay student's
> suicide.
>
> The invective is "some of the worst I've ever seen," Superintendent Dennis
> Carlson said. "We may invite the Department of Justice to come in and help
> us mediate this discussion between people who seem to want to go at each
> other."
>
> Carlson's district in the northern suburbs of Minneapolis is politically
> diverse, and there are strong, divided views on how to combat bullying.
>
> "We believe the bullying policy should put the emphasis on the wrong
> actions of the bullies and not the characteristics of the victims," said
> Chuck Darrell of the conservative Minnesota Family Council.
>
> That's a wrongheaded, potentially dangerous approach, according to the Gay,
> Lesbian and Straight Education Network - which tries to improve the school
> climate for gay students nationwide.
>
> "Policies have to name the problem in order to have an impact," said
> GLSEN's executive director, Eliza Byard. "Only the ones that name it see an
> improvement."
>
> According to a 2009 GLSEN survey of 7,261 students, only 18 percent said
> their schools had a comprehensive program addressing anti-gay bullying,
> while gay students in schools that had such programs were less likely to be
> victimized and more likely to report problems to staff.
>
> Across the political spectrum, every group weighing in on the issue had
> deplored the recent deaths - the latest in a long series of suicides over
> many years by harassed gay teens, but dramatic nonetheless because of the
> high toll in a short span.
>
> The most recent and highest-profile case involved Rutgers University
> freshman Tyler Clementi, 18, who killed himself by jumping off the George
> Washington bridge after his roommate secretly recorded him with another male
> student, then broadcast the video online.
>
> But at least four younger teens have killed themselves since July after
> being targeted by anti-gay bullying, including Justin Aaberg, 15, of
> Andover, Minn., who hanged himself in his room in July. His friends told his
> mother he'd been a frequent target of bullies mocking his sexual
> orientation.
>
> Five other students in his Anoka-Hennepin school district have killed
> themselves in the past year, and gay-rights advocates say bullying may have
> played a role in two of these cases as well.
>
> Carlson, the district superintendent, lost a teenage daughter of his own in
> a car crash, and says he shares the anguish of the parents bereaved by
> suicide. He acknowledges that a controversial district policy calling for
> "neutrality" in classroom discussions of sexual orientation may have created
> an impression among some teachers, students and outsiders that school staff
> wouldn't intervene aggressively to combat anti-gay bullying.
>
> The district - Minnesota's largest - serves nearly 40,000 students in 13
> towns. The school board adopted the neutrality policy in 2009 as a balancing
> act, trying not to offend either liberal or conservative families.
>
> Rebecca Dearing, 17, a junior who belongs to the gay-straight alliance at
> the district's Champlin Park High School, said the neutrality policy caused
> teachers to shy away from halting anti-gay harassment - sometimes leaving
> her gay friends feeling vulnerable to the point where they don't come to
> school.
>
> "This shouldn't be a political issue any more, when it's affecting the
> lives of our students," she said. "It's a human issue that needs to be dealt
> with. They can be doing more and they're not."
>
> In August, amid the furor over the suicides, the district clarified its
> anti-bullying program - saying that it was not governed by the neutrality
> provision and had always been intended to encourage vigilant, proactive
> adult intervention to curb anti-gay harassment. Staffers were told failure
> to intervene would be punished.
>
> Justin Aaberg's mother, Tammy Aaberg, is convinced the broader neutrality
> policy has been damaging to gay students and wants it changed. She said she
> heard belatedly from Justin's friends about instances in past years where he
> was harassed that she was never notified about even through staff members
> were aware.
>
> Now she sees signs that the district wants to be more diligent, but isn't
> fully reassured.
>
> "Most of the teachers and principals, and maybe even now the
> superintendent, they mean well - they want to intervene," she said. "But the
> teachers still don't know what they can and can't do."
>
> Nadia Boufous Phelps, the school psychologist at Anoka's Blaine High
> School, is co-advisor for its gay-straight alliance - to which 27 of the
> 3,000 students belong. She welcomes the attempt to clarify the stance toward
> anti-gay bullying.
>
> "In the past, the staff often would not intervene," she said. "Now the
> district has come out loud and clear, if you hear "That's so gay,' if you
> witness anything, you must do something."
>
> Still, she said, "We still have a long way to go"
>
> Carlson says his district, seven years ago, was among the first in the
> state to implement a comprehensive anti-bullying program. Now he's
> exasperated by the highly charged, politicized debate that has flared since
> Aaberg's suicide.
>
> "It's a terribly sensitive situation," he said. "Hurtful statements on
> either side are not helpful ... and the kids are watching."
>
> Phil Duran, staff attorney for the statewide gay rights group OutFront
> Minnesota, says Carlson and his colleagues are constrained by school board
> members who do not want to anger conservative voters in the district.
>
> "They're between a rock and a hard place," he said. "I do think they want
> to do the right thing - I don't think they known what the right thing is."
>
> Nationally, the recent suicides have intensified calls on Congress to pass
> a pending bill, the Safe Schools Improvement Act. It would require schools
> receiving federal funds to implement bullying prevention programs that
> specifically address anti-gay harassment.
>
> Supporters of the act say it has bipartisan support, but the likelihood of
> Democratic losses in the Nov. 2 election cloud its prospects, and it is
> vehemently opposed by many conservatives.
>
> "A lot of these anti-bullying programs are crossing the lines far beyond
> bullying prevention into adult-oriented material and politics," said Candi
> Cushman, education analyst for Focus on the Family. Mission America
> president Linda Harvey said the act would "incorporate mandatory pro-gay
> propaganda."
>
> According to GLSEN, 10 states have anti-bullying laws along the lines of
> the Safe Schools Act - requiring specific components addressing anti-gay
> harassment. But gay-rights activists say enforcement and compliance is not
> uniform.
>
> For example, Dave Reynolds of the Trevor Project, which seeks to combat
> teen suicides, says many California schools are not in compliance with the
> state's 10-year-old law. One problem area, he said, is California's Central
> Valley - the source of many calls to the Trevor Project's suicide hot line.
>
> Jeffree Merteuil-Clark, 17, is a junior who's active in the gay-straight
> alliance at Frontier High School in Bakersfield, a Central Valley city not
> far from Tehachapi. That's the town where 13-year-old Seth Walsh, hanged
> himself outside his home last month after enduring taunts from classmates
> about being gay. He died after nine days in a coma.
>
> Merteuil-Clark said the teachers who are sympathetic to bullied gay
> students tend to be cautious, fearing they might antagonize Kern County
> school administrators who want to "sweep the problem under the rug."
>
> "Growing up gay in Kern County, you have all this opposition to you," he
> said. "It does have an impact on you. When you're little, you think the rest
> of the world hates you."
>
> The debate has proved to be a minefield for the Olweus Bullying Prevention
> Program, one of the largest in the nation, as it strives to serve schools
> ranging from progressive to conservative.
>
> "We have to be extremely careful," said Marlene Snyder, the Olweus
> development director, describing a community-by-community approach which
> enables schools to tailor the program as they see fit in regard to anti-gay
> bullying.
>
> "We've worked in all kinds of schools," Snyder said. "Some have very much
> taken on the homophobic situation. Other schools won't touch it with a
> 10-foot pole."
>
> GLSEN sees a mixed picture nationwide - gay-straight alliances continue to
> spread, numbering more than 4,000 nationwide, yet nine of 10 gay students in
> its latest survey reported suffering anti-gay harassment,
>
> Asked for an example of an effective program, GLSEN leader Eliza Byard
> cited New York City's Respect for All Initiative. The district, which serves
> 1.1 million students, makes specific mention of sexual orientation in its
> anti-bullying training for teachers and its materials for students.
>
> "There's always more to do," said Elayna Konstan, head of the Office of
> School and Youth Development. "We're always trying to do this work better."
>
> ---
>
> Associated Press writer Chris Williams in Minneapolis contributed to this
> report.
>
> ---
>
> Online:
>
> GLSEN: http://www.glsen.org/cgi-bin/iowa/all/home/index.html
>
> Minnesota Family Council: http://www.mfc.org/
>
>
>
>
> On Oct 6, 2010, at 5:55 PM, Beth Ferholt wrote:
>
>  There have been six recent suicides of US youth who were physically and
>> verbally bullied by their classmates.  This bullying was in response to
>> these teenager's perceived sexual orientation and/or gender nonconformity.
>> There have been many types of responses to these deaths, but the most
>> hopeful and powerful I've seen so far is the following, just posted by an
>> NYC  youth chorus who has decided not to the leave protection of children
>> up
>> to adults.
>>
>> (A children's novel, Nobody's Family is Going to Change by Fitzhugh, is
>> the
>> only place where I've seen this type of youth action before.)
>>
>> http://www.youtube.com/user/itgetsbetterproject#p/f/13/F9tSmwqpWQM
>>
>> The teenagers whose suicides motivate this action:
>>
>> Asher Brown, 13, Cypress, Texas, Sept. 23rd 2010
>> Seth Walsh, 13, Tehachapi, California, Sept 19, 2010
>> Justin Aaberg, 15, Anoka, Minnesota, July 09, 2010
>> Billy Lucas, 15, Greensburg, Indiana, Sept. 09, 2010
>> Tyler Clementi, 18, Ridgewood, New Jersey, Sept 22, 2010
>> Raymond Chase, 19, Monticello, New York, Sept. 29, 2010
>>
>> --
>> Beth Ferholt
>> Assistant Professor
>> School of Education
>> Brooklyn College, City University of New York
>> 2900 Bedford Avenue
>> Brooklyn, NY 11210-2889
>>
>> Email: bferholt@brooklyn.cuny.edu
>> Phone: (718) 951-5205
>> Fax: (718) 951-4816
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