The Safe Schools Improvement Act, introduced this week in the U. S. House of Representatives, seeks to ensure that students, including LGBT youth, are free from bullying in the classroom.
The legislation, introduced by Rep. Linda Sánchez (D-Calif.), Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) and Carolyn McCarthy (D-N.Y.) on May 5, would require that public schools that receive federal Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act funding employ comprehensive anti-bullying policies that specifically prohibit harassment motivated by race, religion, sexual orientation or gender identity.
The legislation has been introduced three times previously and, most recently, died in committee last year.
The bill has received widespread support from such organizations as the National Safe Schools Partnership, the American Association of School Administrators, the National Parent-Teacher Association and the American Federation of Teachers.
In addition to the policy requirement, the legislation would also call for school districts to track cases of bullying in order for further understanding of the motivations and effects of classroom harassment.
According to the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, these effects are often particularly devastating for LGBT students. GLSEN’s 2007 National School Climate Survey found that more than 86 percent of LGBT students surveyed had experienced harassment at school, which led more than 60 percent of them to feel unsafe at their schools and nearly a third of them to skip a day of school within a one-month period. The study found that the higher the level of harassment, the lower the students’ attendance, which had a profound impact on their academic performance.
Last month, GLSEN released statistics on Pennsylvania LGBT students, who reported higher levels of harassment than the national average in every category that GLSEN analyzed. Nearly 90 percent of local LGBT students included in the study had experienced verbal harassment, and more than 50 percent of the students said the bullying had progressed to physical harassment.
Pennsylvania, along with 42 other states, does not currently have a statewide LGBT-inclusive school bullying law.
Academic consequences pale in comparison to the other effects that anti-LGBT bullying can have on students. Just last month, Jaheem Herrera, an 11-year-old boy from Massachusetts, hung himself after facing constant antigay taunts from his classmates.
With such a vast majority of states lacking comprehensive plans to deter bullying of students for sexual-orientation or gender-identity issues, a federal law is the most effective approach to stemming the tide of classroom harassment. Although the federal government can’t legislate what parents teach their children about acceptance and tolerance, it does have the power — and the obligation — to ensure that American schools are places where all of our youth can grow and learn without the presence and pressure of bigotry.
