Tuesday I started this series on the Blueprint for Equality with the Introduction and Part 1, which concerned economic opportunity. This morning brought Part 2, which concerned housing and homelessness.
Part 3 concerns something higher up on Maslow's scale: Safe and Supportive Schools. In the times in which we live, no person should be denied the opportunity to become educated. And we know that if children stay home because of being afraid of how they will be treated at school, then they aren't learning anything but how much they are hated. And we know that fearful children are not in the right frame of mind to be focused learners.
Bullying is nothing new. People of every generation have faced bullying in some form. However, it seems like bullying is becoming more aggressive and personal. Bullying is no longer restricted to the school yards and contained within the time spent at school. Victims or bullying can face harassment at all hours of the day now.
--Juliana Nunez
18. The President and the Departments of Education and Health and Human Services should continue to devote resources and high-level attention to the problems of bullying, harassment, and peer violence, and should include explicit discussion of transgender and gender nonconforming youth in those efforts.
On March 20, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett and other officials spoke at the White House LGBT Conference on Safe Schools and Communities at the University of Texas at Arlington.
We are working with schools and communities to address bigotry before it becomes fuel for violence.
--Eric Holder
19. The President should endorse, and Congress should pass, the
Safe Schools Improvement Act (S. 506), which would ensure that all schools and districts implement comprehensive and effective anti-bullying and anti-harassment policies that specifically include gender identity and sexual orientation.
The fact is, you don’t have to support marriage equality, the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” or any other gay rights issue to know that harassment in our schools is wrong, and that we have a responsibility to make it better.
--R. Clarke Cooper, Washington Times
20. The President should endorse, and Congress should pass, the
Student Non-Discrimination Act (S. 555, H.R. 998)>, which would prohibit discrimination in schools on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation.
SNDA would provide lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (“LGBT”) students with long overdue and much needed explicit federal protections against discrimination and harassment. The legislation also protects students who associate with LGBT people, including students with LGBT parents and friends.
--SNDA letter of March 7 to President Obama from 70 national and state organizations, copied to Secretary Arne Duncan, Department of Education, and Attorney General Eric Holder
21. The Department of Education should issue guidance clarifying the application of Title IX anti-discrimination protections to transgender and gender nonconforming youth, including the right of transgender students to access school facilities and campus housing, and otherwise be treated in accord with their gender identity.
Current guidance is in a letter dated October 26, 2010.
The relevant portion of Title IX is the following:
… it can be sex discrimination if students are harassed either for exhibiting what is perceived as a stereotypical characteristic for their sex, or for failing to conform to stereotypical notions of masculinity and femininity. Title IX also prohibits sexual harassment and gender-based harassment of all students, regardless of the actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity of the harasser or target.
Although Title IX does not prohibit discrimination based solely on sexual orientation, Title IX does protect all students, including lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) students, from sex discrimination.
Of course most schools haven't got a clue about how to apply this guidance.
22. The Department of Education should enhance the transparency and effectiveness of Title IX enforcement by providing transgender-inclusive training for all Title IX officers and by tracking and reporting data on LGBT-related claims.
If data on LGBT related claims of violation is not collected, how would we have any idea whether or not Title IX is being enforced.
23. The National Center for Education Statistics should ensure that data collection includes detailed information about bullying, harassment, and other school violence, including whether the victim’s gender identity or expression were at issue.
See #22.
24. The Department of Education should mandate that all states provide comprehensive suicide prevention education to all high school students. The mandate should require that the curriculum meets minimum standards, including a discussion of LGBT youth and why they have an increased risk of suicide.
The National Association of School Psychologists has a starting place.
Suicide is the third leading cause of death among youth between 10 and 19 years of age. However, suicide is preventable. Youth who are contemplating suicide frequently give warning signs of their distress. Parents, teachers, and friends are in a key position to pick up on these signs and get help. Most important is to never take these warning signs lightly or promise to keep them secret. When all adults and students in the school community are committed to making suicide prevention a priority—and are empowered to take the correct actions—we can help youth before they engage in behavior with irreversible consequences.
The cynic in me says that there isn't a snowball's chance of…
…including a discussion of LGBT youth and why they have an increased risk of suicide.
25. The Departments of Education and Health and Human Services should develop new cultural competence and best practice resources for schools focusing on transgender and gender nonconforming youth and preventing their victimization.
Teach the teachers and staff. I've lectured about gender variance to potential teachers at a college of education. It should happen more often. But the teacher who invited me to address those students did not become tenured. I do not know if there was a connection.
26. The Department of Education should provide guidance for transgender students on completing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and work with schools, the Selective Service System, and the Social Security Administration to ensure that applications are not unduly delayed or rejected because of gender or documentation issues.
Online help with FAFSA for LGBT families is available at FinAid.
A sample of the problem:
To be eligible for federal student aid, male students must have registered with Selective Service. Transgendered individuals often run into trouble with this requirement because of confusion over whether they were supposed to register. There's also confusion about what they should do if they were required to register but didn't.
Registration is required, based on birth sex, regardless of the fact that transgender individuals cannot serve in the military.