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Ohio Must Have the Courage to Confront Bullying
This week, cell phone video footage captured the horrific beating of a 15-year-old teenager at Union-Scioto High School in Chillicothe, Ohio. The severe assault took place inside of a classroom, and all evidence suggests the boy was beaten because he is gay. His attacker waited in the classroom and beat the student when he entered, breaking his teeth and possibly causing a concussion. Earlier in the week, the same student had called the victim anti-gay slurs on his Facebook page.
For lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) students in Ohio, this is sadly not an unfamiliar story. Every day, LGBT students in Ohio’s schools are in fear of being harassed, tormented or in extreme cases – beaten up, simply for being who they are. According to an Ohio Research Brief based on data from GLSEN's 2009 National School Climate Survey, 1 in 4 LGBT students in Ohio experience physical assault at school because of their sexual orientation. These students face a consistent drumbeat of bullying and harassment that has a negative impact on the learning environment for all students.
One important part of the solution to the bullying epidemic in our schools is included in a pending bill in the Ohio legislature, but our elected officials have yet to even hear testimony in support of it. Without minimizing the general prohibition against any kind of bullying or harassment, House Bill 208 would incorporate badly-needed protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity into Ohio’s existing safer schools laws.
Union-Scioto High School in Chillicothe currently has an anti-bullying policy but it does not specifically include protections based on sexual orientation or gender identity. If it did, it would send a clear message to students, teachers, administrators and parents that schools are meant to be safe and respectful learning environments for all students .
Research demonstrates that students feel safer – and actually are safer – in schools that have anti-bullying policies that specifically spell out these kinds of protections. In districts and states where there are specific protections for these young people, exposure to bullying is significantly lower are significantly lower.
In 2009, fewer than 1 in 10 LGBT students attended a school in Ohio with a comprehensive anti-bullying policy that included specific protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Until our state’s laws and school policies specifically address this problem, bullying will continue unabated and schools will remain unsafe. Community members must urge their elected officials to pass legislation that would incorporate sexual orientation and gender identity into Ohio’s existing anti-bullying laws.
We all know that school can be a hard place to fit in. But if our schools don’t tell students that it is wrong to bully and harass people based on their sexual orientation and gender identity, we set students up to fail. Our schools have a responsibility – legal and ethical – to provide a safe learning environment for our children. The schools are failing, and we are letting them.
Ohioans across the state should contact their elected officials and urge that House Bill 208 be passed this session. We need to embrace this solution and others like it including teacher training and cyber-bullying protections, rather than politicize the issue to the detriment of our students and educational system.
While it is sad that it has taken a videotaped beating for people to stand up and take notice of this problem, I hope that policymakers, teachers and administrators don’t let this fall off their radar until another violent incident occurs. By supporting this legislation, we send a powerful and timely message that every student in Ohio should feel safe, valued and respected in our schools.
Launched in August 2010, TheMetropreneur.com is a local online resource devoted to small business development and entrepreneurship. Its aim is to tell the stories of Central Ohio's business community, foster regional economic development and assist entrepreneurs with its resource-heavy focus.