Elementary School Climate, Anti-Gay Bullying Examined In New Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network Report

Given that more and more youngsters are self-identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) at younger ages, a new report hopes to shed light on school climate, biased remarks and bullying among elementary school students.

Released by the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network (GLSEN), "Playground and Prejudice: Elementary School Climate in the United States" examined students' and teachers' experiences with biased remarks and bullying, as well as attitudes about gender expression and family diversity. The report itself is based on national surveys of 1,065 elementary school students in third to sixth grades, as well as 1,099 elementary school teachers of kindergarten through sixth grade.

Among the report's key findings: the most common forms of biased language exchanged among elementary school students are the use of the word "gay" (as in "that's so gay") along with "spaz" or "retard." Even more disturbing -- a staggering 75 percent of students reported that they were called names or bullied with some regularity, frequently based on their looks or body size. Interestingly, 37 percent attributed the bullying to the fact that they weren't good at sports, compared with 26 percent who said their aptitude with schoolwork was the reason.

Finally, one in seven students said the reason they personally felt unsafe or afraid at school is personal appearance.

"Over the past few years, there has been an increase in research on bullying in schools, including elementary schools,” Senior Director of Research & Strategic Initiatives Dr. Joseph Kosciw said in a statement. “However, our report is one of the few that examines bias-based bullying at the elementary school level and the first to examine incidence of homophobic remarks and the negative experiences of children who do not conform to societal standards in their gender expression from a national vantage point."

In conjunction with the report, GLSEN officials also released "Ready, Set, Respect!" which they describe as "a new instructional resource informed by our findings to address homophobia, gender expression and LGBT-inclusive family diversity at the elementary school level."

For more information on the report, click here.

Take a look at some of the report's key findings below:

Comments

[ed chu2007]

04:43 PM on 01/21/2012

Here's the great and to the point book on how to deal with bullying http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006ZZIJUW

[J OConnor]

09:04 PM on 01/19/2012

As a teacher (who happens to be lesbian), I want to comment on something that I think would change all of this without kids having to beat up other kids to protect themselves. How about we teach teachers how to talk about these issues? It's not exactly offered as a college class and some folks need help in dealing with these type issues. Teach teachers how to create a positive class climate for all students. Teach them to talk about diversity since all of the kids in class are different from each other in many ways. If the role models cannot have the conversation, how do we suppose the children will?

[darlenebonny]

11:07 AM on 01/19/2012

I took some heat when I went to school. I learn to stand up for myself and so did my friends. That made us a tight little group. It also helps if you have a big bother who will take on the bigger kids. My bother love to kick bully butt. Your always going to have a few dumb bullies around no matter what. It will take time for all this to work out. We aren't going away and are here to stay, get use to it my little cupcakes.

[mikey09-12]

10:06 AM on 01/19/2012

Recently in our local school we had an issue of anti-war kids calling the children of military families ug.ly names and making them feel unsafe in school. The anti-war kids are claiming free speech rights, while the military family kids are calling it bullying. wonder how this will all play out.

[llisa]

07:01 PM on 01/19/2012

I hope it plays out that the bullies are stopped from bullying.

[LelioRisen]

09:58 AM on 01/19/2012

What is going on with the discourse here?

I flagged someone for referring to being gay as 'a mental defect,' and the other day I flagged a poster who referred to me as 'a twinkie.' Both of those comments remained.

Yet today, after someone derided me for saying that my having been bullied made me stronger, in that it made me committed standing up for other victims and helped turn me into a glbt advocate, my post in response was never allowed. I know this, because 2 other replies did go up. The 1 word I used that apparently caused it to be censored was 'bitter.'

Yet it's okay to disparage gay people on this site?

It would be nice to get some answers.

[LelioRisen]

12:08 PM on 01/19/2012

Giving credit where credit is due....after this was posted the original post I complained about was finally allowed to be posted, albeit with the time stamp from when it was written, not when it was posted. 3 other response I had submitted at the same time went up immediately, so I knew it wasn't just an overall problem with all responses.

Additionally, the posts that were flagged by me have finally been taken down. I did not bother to check on the offensive comment in another post.

One of my biggest issues when comments get held up is that, when they do get posted, they are given time stamps dating to when they were first submitted, meaning that they will usually get buried in a thread and hardly get read. But it beats their not seeing the light of day.

So, thank you moderator, for fixing things.

[llisa]

07:03 PM on 01/19/2012

One would think that bullying comments to people would be taken down immediately--especially in a thread about bullying. Boggles the mind why some nasty comments are deemed acceptable.

[TXanimal]

02:41 PM on 01/19/2012

A post I wrote talking about the positive influence bullying had on me was also never posted. I guess being really good at one's job and chosen athletic pursuits isn't acceptable discourse either... ;)

[gdcforjustice]

09:43 AM on 01/19/2012

When the HATE speeches stop from: Rick Santorum, Rick Perry, The Pope, Pat Robertson, the list goes on....maybe Gay Bullying will stop, until then its ....validated, endorsed and rewarded! This is a very hateful racist, sexist, homophobic, zenophobic......society. Its time we take the UNITED out of STATES OF AMERICA..... because we are surely not UNITED.

[sharkcrazy59]

07:08 AM on 01/19/2012

I was teased in school because I was small. These were words that meant nothing to me. grow a pair if you can and get over it. I dont believe in bullying but I found out if you ignore the words the losers using them will go away. If it gets physical then report the bullies other wise handle it.

[Want2Help]

08:21 AM on 01/19/2012

You were strong enough to get over kids teasing you, congratulations!! Please do not be disrespectful to others who can't get over being bullied. You are being rude and insensitive to others feelings. Children have committed suicide because they were being bullied. Parents have lost their children, families are destroyed. How dare you get on here and bash people because you got over some people teasing you? That does not make you an expert on how to deal with others emotions. I'm not sure if you are a parent, but, try and put yourself in the shoes of a parent who has lost their child because they committed suicide because they were being bullied. How would you feel about your statement?

FYI: Teasing is misunderstood because it is often confused with bullying, which has a strictly negative impact. The way to distinguish between the two is by the intent. The goal of teasing is to create closer relationships and make connections. The goal of bullying is to harm.

[sharkcrazy59]

09:14 AM on 01/19/2012

Teasing is bullying I was also beat up and pushed around, I stood up for myself and that is that. We are too busy raising kids to be sensitive to others instead of raising them to be strong for themselves. I have kids and I have tried to raise them to forget about what people say and to stand up to people who pry to push them around. if that is wrong in your eyes so be it. Dont lecture to me on what you dont know. Yes I do not believe in bullying in any way shape or form.

[Laurie Chase]

12:43 PM on 01/22/2012

Teasing and bullying are part of being human. Get over yourselves and learn to speak up and defend yourselves. I am not being disrespectful, if someone is so mentally unbalanced they committ suicide, then i feel sorry for them, but face it, they were unstable to begin with-it's not a "bulliers" fault if someone committs suicide, it's the person's choice to kill themselves. Sorry if this bothers you, but when you grow up, there is nobody to defend your choices but you. Learn how to do it, or be a perennial victim.

[Want2Help]

08:24 AM on 01/19/2012

Teasing is misunderstood because it is often confused with bullying, which has a strictly negative impact. The way to distinguish between the two is by the intent. The goal of teasing is to create closer relationships and make connections. The goal of bullying is to harm.

[George Bertha]

05:22 AM on 01/19/2012

I was bullied when I was a kid, punch the bully in the mouth and he'll never bother you again!

[Robbert Bricker]

09:43 AM on 01/19/2012

amen. that's the only way to make a bully stop.

[LintLass]

10:10 AM on 01/19/2012

Unless maybe they are indoctrinated to believe you are 'the enemy.'

[Charles John Olesen]

02:34 AM on 01/19/2012

You have to read this article about how out of control liberals are with anti-bullying. It's really getting out hand.

http://americababy.hubpages.com/hub/If-Youre-Called-Stupid-a-Lot-Youve-Probably-Earned-It

[James Fair]

03:27 AM on 01/19/2012

Teens taking their own lives is getting out of hand.

[Laurie Chase]

12:49 PM on 01/22/2012

You can't change other people, you can only change your self. Figure it out or grow up to be a perrennial victim. P.S. Adults and society in general do not care for victims, people who can't or won't stick up for themselves or constantly blame other people for their problems. Grow up.

[Robbert Bricker]

09:49 AM on 01/19/2012

the problem with the usa is this us and them mentality. liberals? conservatives? really? you know, a house divided falls. as long as both those that consider themselves liberals and those that consider themselves conservatives keep up this "war", this nation will continue to plummet. the writer of that article is obviously paranoid and has a political motive to vilify those liberals. egad. kids are being beaten and abused in schools... they are killing themselves and one another. this is not about the great divide in this nation... its about humanity.

[golions]

10:57 AM on 01/19/2012

Vey well expressed; F&F.

[llisa]

07:07 PM on 01/19/2012

f and f

[valerie5656]

01:05 AM on 01/19/2012

Once again this comes down to parents or guardians. Children repeat what they hear. They adopt prejudices that the people they trust have. Even if you don't directly say it to a child, they know how you feel about certain things. They are very intuitive. They do not "make up words" like spaz, gay, ect.", as those words and meanings have been around for years. They hear it, they pick up feelings of parents, and use that when they are learning social skills at a young age as a way of testing limits, bonding with other children, siding with the group (which makes them feel safe) against an "outcast". I just don't know if this is a normal part of growing up or if this is part of "natural selection" or what. I just know it's wrong and sad.

[anitafeeney]

12:21 AM on 01/19/2012

yeah they are looking at it and in the end NOTHING will get done about the bullying

[Jennifer Baldasarre]

11:24 PM on 01/18/2012

i'm a bit perplexed....i'm a straight, 41 yr. old woman, and when i was in high school, the gay kids WERE the cool kids...everyone wanted to hang out with, and be friends with THEM!!! They were the fun, edgy, artistic kids....how did all this bullying begin??

[jonandian]

02:36 AM on 01/19/2012

I dont know for sure but my bet is when AIDS happened. The HIV/AIDS pandemic of the 1980s brought a lot of fear of us gays to the world. Everyone thought it was a gay disease that was gods punishment so the anti gay rhetoric really got upped around then. To top that off we had president anti gay reagan who wouldnt even talk about gays or aids for 7 years into his term. People thought you could get AIDS which we now know you cant catch or get AIDS from someone you get HIV, but they thought they could get it from bathrooms, from kissing, from touching, sharing drinking glasses.

Ignorance leads to fear, fear leads to hate and hate leads to suffering.

through education we can bring equality

[LelioRisen]

09:49 AM on 01/19/2012

Bullying was going on well before AIDS. It happened to me in the 70s and I know it happened to others in the 50s and 60s, at the very least. All it took was for a boy not to be good at sports, as just one example. I study glbt history and anti-gay hatred was far more severe prior to Stonewall than it was at any time since. It was a way different world back then when people got imprisoned and sometimes lobotomized for being gay

[LintLass]

10:14 AM on 01/19/2012

"Begin?" I dunno about your school, but no one even dared be 'out' (And yes, it was well before AIDS) ...and the violence and harrassment of minorities was endemic.

The difference today is that while homophobia may be less *universal,* it's been made more *intense* by the hate-preaching and political 'othering' of those who want to drag us back to how it was before Stonewall.

[Jennifer Baldasarre]

10:54 AM on 01/19/2012

in my high school, the kids were out and proud in the 80's, but we lived in NJ, not too far from NYC, and all the gay kids were the "cool" ones who used to go to all the cool clubs like Danceteria, Limelight, etc. in NYC....ahh, the memories bring me back...good times!!! I still get a little excited when i meet a person and find out that they're gay, cause chances are that they are going to be a lot of fun to be around!!

[Laurie Chase]

12:51 PM on 01/22/2012

White homophobia? How about Muslim homophobia? Black homophobia? You are a racists to the core to insinuate that only whites are homophobic.

[FitzT]

10:58 PM on 01/18/2012

OK, when they say "gay" they mean inappropriately stupid. If something insults their intelligence it gets a "that's so gay". Effeminate boys do have some problems but end up hanging with the girls anyway, often quite happily. Once you jump on a boy for using the word as an insult they see through it right away, just as they know that the pretend guns they play with are not real but some grown-ups freak out nonetheless. The result is that the boy will lose all respect for your opinion and rightfully question everything else you say too. These movements come and go but do their damage. Further, most children when they learn about the act of sex are pretty put off. Would you like to then explain about anal and oral sex?

[jonandian]

02:38 AM on 01/19/2012

My question is why is Thats so gay appropriate or acceptable. You wouldnt let it slide if you heard a white kid call someone the n word, why is it just acceptable to say thats so gay. People need to be taught it is offensive and gay does not equal bad.

[petpetdonna]

10:07 PM on 01/18/2012

When I went to school, no one came out. And no one was bullied about it either. So what does that tell you?

[mchcallow]

10:30 PM on 01/18/2012

That if you're as old as I am then the dominant discourse made it so that many didn't come out and if memory serves, I didn't come out until much later in life but I was targeted for my gender non conformity (I wasn't masculine enough).

In short, the statement is meaningless...

[Steve Brewer II]

10:34 PM on 01/18/2012

Oh oh let me guess, LGBT people had to hide who they were so they would not get persecuted for it?

[Mindy Czech]

12:11 AM on 01/19/2012

Nuh uh, we simply didn't exist then. Everyone knows gays didn't exist until the seventies, you silly thing. We popped out of thin air.

[fish59]

09:59 PM on 01/18/2012

"the most common forms of biased language..." Now the left is ready to go after us for our speech. This is getting out of hand.

[imlogansmom]

11:03 PM on 01/18/2012

The "left" is not going after anyone about their speech. It's about the words people throw at each other every single day in an attempt to hurt another person. If you don't think words hurt, ask any child who's ever been called a name or mocked for something that makes him or her different from others. We all have freedom of speech as granted to us in the Bill of Rights, but we also have the right to feel safe and good about who we are. Maybe that last part's not in the Constitution as an amendment, but I would think it's a given.

[ethelmertzrules]

11:38 PM on 01/18/2012

Hate speech. Let's be clear on that.