Creating a safe rural environment

By Michael West

The NSW Anti-Homophobia Interagency, in partnership with Parents and Friends of Gays and Lesbians (PFLAG), will present Roundtable 5 in Bathurst, titled "Sticks & Stones: Creating Safe and Supportive Environments" on October 27.

This roundtable will focus on creating safe, supportive and inclusive environments in schools with a focus on rural NSW.

The most dangerous place for same sex attracted young people to be, in terms of verbal abuse and physical assault, is their school.

Despite many resources being invested in schools to address this issue, there appears to have been no impact on reducing homophobic abuse in the school environment.

Every student has the right to be safe and supported at school. Teachers have a responsibility to ensure that their classrooms are safe and inclusive so that the learning needs of all students are met. Unfortunately this is not true for all. The NSW Anti-Homophobia Interagency provides professional development forums to support teachers to effectively address homophobia in schools.

The Interagency works proactively to respond to the need and expressed demand for information and skills development in response to homophobic harassment and bullying in education settings. Evaluation comments from teachers attending previous Roundtables include the following:

"The resources made available are fantastic.... It has given me more information to put into workshops around the nature of gender development and homophobia that I put to practice"

and

"It helped me to realise that gender construction ideas need to be dealt with at all times - not just in PDHPE class."

No individual teacher (or student) should feel uncertainty about how or when to act on this issue or feel unsafe about whether or not they have institutional support for their actions.

Michael West is a Health Access Consultant with the HIV and Sexual Health Promotion Unit, Northern Sydney Central Coast Health.

For further information

September 2005 contents