Welcome to the simulation titled Step in, Speak Up. This is a transcript of the simulation designed for screen readers.
In this simulation, three high school students, Dani, Tyler, and Casey, share their experiences with anti-LGBTQ harassment. A high school teacher, Ms. Yazzie, addresses anti-LGBTQ statements in her classroom and has a one-on-one conversation with a student who seems to be struggling.
DANI: Thanks so much for coming to talk to us. We want to share some of our experiences with you, because as an educator, you have the power to make our school better. You can help us get better grades, lower our risk of dropping out, or even save a student’s life. Research shows that as many as one out of five young people experience mental health issues like anxiety or depression each year. But it’s a lot higher for those of us who are LGBTQ—that’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or questioning. Q can also stand for “queer,” which is like a catchall.
While a little over a quarter of heterosexual students report having felt so sad or helpless every day for at least two weeks that they stopped doing their usual activities, that number jumps to over 60% for LGBT students. And while almost 15% of heterosexual high school students say they’ve seriously considered suicide in the last year, over 40% of LGBT students have. Almost 30% of them say they’ve attempted suicide in the past year,and roughly a third of them had an injury, poisoning, or overdose so severe that they had to be treated by a medical professional. And let’s be clear, students aren’t considering suicide because they’re LGBTQ. These are the effects of verbal and physical harassment and feeling, just, completely isolated and unvalued by their schools, families, and communities.
Did you know that being perceived as gay, lesbian, or bisexual is the second most common reason students are bullied at school? And gender expression, how masculine or feminine a student is, is the fifth most common cause? In fact, LGBTQ students are 50% more likely to report feeling “not very safe” or “not at all safe” at school. And over a third say they missed a day of school in the last month because they were afraid for their safety. How are kids supposed to learn math or Spanish or whatever when they don’t even feel safe at school?
They may also be dealing with stress outside of school, like rejection from their family, friends, or community. I’ve heard that 40% of homeless kids are LGBTQ, kicked out of their homes when they came out to their families. So some of us get a lot of messages at school and at home that who we are just isn’t okay. Many LGBTQ students feel like they don’t have a teacher or an adult they can talk to who cares about them. I think we agree that all students deserve to know they’re safe. And that’s why you’re here today.
By the way, it’s not only students who identify as LGBTQ who are teased and can feel unsafe… Like, I’ve always been picked on a lot for my weight. And then, when a few people at school found out that my mom’s gay, they figured I must be a lesbian, too, even though I identify as straight. They started saying the meanest, most ignorant stuff to me, and I got it everywhere: in class, at lunch, in the hallways and like, online, by text. I cried a lot. I didn’t even want to go to school and my grades went down.
CASEY: Did you tell anyone?
DANI: I didn’t know what to do. A couple of teachers saw me getting teased, but I guess they didn’t know what to do, either.
CASEY: While most teachers say that they intervene when they hear homophobic remarks, there are still one in five teachers who say they “rarely” or “never” intervene.
TYLER: I had seen other kids get teased for being gay, so I was terrified of coming out at school. I didn’t think my friends would stick with me. I didn’t know… So I kinda pretended to be someone else, a straight version of myself. It took so much effort just to get through the day; I couldn’t focus on anything. I’m out now, but making the decision to be open about who I am was the toughest time of my life.