LGBT News Parents Outraged That 8th Graders Were Asked If They’re LGBT In Anti-Bullying Worksho

Re: Parents Outraged That 8th Graders Were Asked If They’re LGBT In Anti-Bullying Wor

Yeah that was kinda dumb. :/ But, it's school.

 

Re: Parents Outraged That 8th Graders Were Asked If They’re LGBT In Anti-Bullying Wor

Good intention, but you should never out someone, even kids, publicly. Coming out to a whole group of people at once is not something kids would do in front of their friends, at least not in the current environment. Unless society get better and there is literally no stigma left, it would still be best to leave kids to come out when they feel ready to.

 

Re: Parents Outraged That 8th Graders Were Asked If They’re LGBT In Anti-Bullying Wor

If it is a school in which LGBT students are bullied, wouldn't forcing kids to come out just get more of them bullied? Why can't the teachers just talk about why LGBT students shouldn't be bullied and how to protect oneself from bullying?

 

Re: Parents Outraged That 8th Graders Were Asked If They’re LGBT In Anti-Bullying Wor

I'm not saying what the school did was right, but if you lie, wouldn't that be counter-productive? If you decide to come out eventually afterwards, wouldn't your classmates and friends be judgmental since you lied earlier?

I'm asking because I'm curious.

 

Re: Parents Outraged That 8th Graders Were Asked If They’re LGBT In Anti-Bullying Wor

Phoenix, I've found that people are mostly accepting that if you're not ready to come out, then you're going to lie about your sexuality. That said, while I was closeted but knew I was bi, I never said I was straight, rather that I liked girls, so I wasn't lying but I wasn't outing myself.

 

Re: Parents Outraged That 8th Graders Were Asked If They’re LGBT In Anti-Bullying Wor

It would be good if they were talking about different types of sexual orientation, but to address bulling? I don't think so. Mainly because people can get bullied because of their sexual orientation and it doesn't actually stop the bulling in the first place. Most of the population are going to say straight because they don't even know complete themselves.

Forest
(*hug*) (*hug*)

---------- Post added 19th Jan 2016 at 04:05 PM ----------

Well what if they didn't know, I still know people in the year above me who have no idea.

 

Re: Parents Outraged That 8th Graders Were Asked If They’re LGBT In Anti-Bullying Wor

This seems like an extreme case of good intentions gone awry. I think that unless full confidentiality is being ensured (which in this case it sounds like it isn't) this question is very inappropriate, and may out someone on accident.

 

Re: Parents Outraged That 8th Graders Were Asked If They’re LGBT In Anti-Bullying Wor

I agree

 

Re: Parents Outraged That 8th Graders Were Asked If They’re LGBT In Anti-Bullying Wor

Exactly. I didn't know what age eighth grade was, so I had to look it up and it says 13-14 years old. I would've freaked out if I'd been asked at that age considering I was in the middle of questioning and only starting to coming to terms with everything. I would of probably have panicked (because I would of worried that they could tell or something, or worry that I'd get found out) if they had asked me that. I can just imagine the conversations after this workshop between students (and possibly the odd passing mocking comment from the teachers). I don't know what the overall view people have in that area, but they could of approached this a lot more subtly, not naming and asking individual students but just having lessons about discrimination and the other subjects mentioned.

 

Re: Parents Outraged That 8th Graders Were Asked If They’re LGBT In Anti-Bullying Wor

I feel that they should have asked if anyone was comfortable sharing thier sexuality, instead of what they chose to do. This was out of line, though I feel like they meant well.

 

Re: Parents Outraged That 8th Graders Were Asked If They’re LGBT In Anti-Bullying Wor

Here's the thing. I'm not out of the closet yet, and I'm not even in that sort of super judgmental environment anymore. What keeps me in the closet? The fear and anxiety of the unknown and I'd suggest unpredictable reaction of family and friends. So if I'm not ready to face that yet? Yeah, I'm gonna lie. Sure, you have a point that it could be counter-productive, but at the same time, it may be easier to take more blowback by being mentally ready for it than taking less when you aren't.

I can kinda get what the school was aiming for. But you can't just create a less hostile environment by pushing kids to divulge their weak points. Not without also addressing the mentality/behavior that leads to the bullying in the first place.

 

Re: Parents Outraged That 8th Graders Were Asked If They’re LGBT In Anti-Bullying Wor

It's not right of them at all to put kids on the spot like that or pressure them to reveal such personal things.
I could see maybe if they had the kids write the answers anonymously and doing something with the answers to show how many people have certain identities and problems that others assume aren't there so they feel more united and less alone. I think that was kind of the intent of the workshop, but they obviously didn't go about it in the right way.
I can't even imagine having to get up in front of a class and state that if I was still in the closet. I mean, even now because you may not feel comfortable telling certain people or teachers.

 

Re: Parents Outraged That 8th Graders Were Asked If They’re LGBT In Anti-Bullying Wor

from the link:

“The intent of the workshop was to build a positive school culture and was not intended to offend any students.”

Every time someone does something that they would realize is obviously stupid if they thought about it for 2 seconds before they did it, they use the excuse of we had good intentions, and didn't mean to offend anyone, it really gets old.:***:

 

Re: Parents Outraged That 8th Graders Were Asked If They’re LGBT In Anti-Bullying Wor

Here's something that schools shouldn't exactly do but is a heck of a lot better than what that school did:
Get every student into their own private room. Tell them to flip a coin twice. If it comes up heads both times, write "yes". If it comes up tails both times, write "no". If you get one heads and one tails, answer the question "Are you LGBTQA+?"
From here we can work out the percentages, but not tell who exactly is LGBT. You cannot figure out any individual simply by looking at their slip of paper.
You would have to do this with older kids, when students are less likely to be in denial.

If they asked straight-up and in front of your class at my school,
In 8th grade I would've said "heck no!"
In 9th grade I would've said "no"
In 10th grade I would've squeaked out a "no" with a beet-red face.
In 11th grade I would've said "yes"

 

Re: Parents Outraged That 8th Graders Were Asked If They’re LGBT In Anti-Bullying Wor

Stupid school district... really asking if a child is LGBT is a terrible thing to do the kids and it's very invasive. Although not a lot of people having be talking about it in the forum but, financial issues, prison records or parents, and asking if the parents are drug/alcohol abusers are just as bad. This workshop was just as invasive for the straight kids as it was for any who happened to be LGBT.

 

Re: Parents Outraged That 8th Graders Were Asked If They’re LGBT In Anti-Bullying Wor

Well that was a terrible thing to do :eusa_doh:

 

Re: Parents Outraged That 8th Graders Were Asked If They’re LGBT In Anti-Bullying Wor

i would be outraged that they were asking kids to essentially out themselves.

 

Re: Parents Outraged That 8th Graders Were Asked If They’re LGBT In Anti-Bullying Wor

The problem with this is that it can be very inaccurate without having a large sample size. It would have to be done on a huge scale, especially with two coin flips.

 

Re: Parents Outraged That 8th Graders Were Asked If They’re LGBT In Anti-Bullying Wor

Very misguided. But, I'm sure there are other facts that the story didn't contain.