Page 17 - 2018_Jour_85-1_Societal-Issues

Schools and Societal Issues 17

4. All students should have access to trained school counselors or teachers who
have training in dealing with bullying.
5. One change that can be implemented by all teaching staff is the use of inclusive
vocabulary that illustrates the acceptance of sexual orientation, gender identity, and marriage
status, such as partner or other gender-friendly nouns.
6. Teachers can include notable authors, scientists, or leaders who are openly
LGBTQ, along with heterosexual notables, during classroom academic discussions.
Traditionally, teachers serve as role models for the students in their classroom. In
many cases, LGBTQ students lack role models who are like them (Gray, 2013) and with
whom they can relate in regard to sexual orientation. Other teachers need to advocate for
them. Teachers’ advocacy for the students in their classroom is one of the most important
roles that teachers can play in their students’ lives. How prepared are teachers to support
a student who comes out in their classroom or who is already out? The authors wrote this
article because one of them had a student who came out during class. Teachers need to
be prepared to connect with these students. The following questions can help to create a
common starting point to further understanding of the situation:
1. What terminology does the student prefer?
2. What terminology does the student consider offensive?
3. How will the teacher work with the LGBTQ students’ parents?
4. How will the teacher work with non-LGBTQ students?
5. How does the teacher help these students (both LGBTQ students and non-
LGBTQ students) even if he or she doesn’t agree with gender identities?
6. Are teachers, staff, and administrators practicing inclusion for all students,
including LGBTQ students?
Teachers also need to be prepared for possible questions that other students might
legitimately ask if a student comes out in the classroom. Questions and responses should be
worded in such a way that they contain a positive and valuing perspective. This might require
a change in thinking as people often use words such as “normal,” “different,” and “others,” which
can be interpreted as being negative. In addition, further considerations include the following:
1. Does the school district or university have safe-classroom training?
2. If there is no training offered by the school district or university, what other
resources are available for safe-classroom training in the school’s location?
3. What LGBTQ agencies or groups could be brought into the classroom or school
to assist in educating the students, teachers, staff, administrators, parents, community
members, and other stakeholders?
4. Furthermore, students should be introduced to federal, state, and local policies
that affect them in order to self-advocate successfully.
5. Many states and schools have LGBTQ support networks on Facebook and
Twitter, as well as information about specific organizational or informational websites,
such as the following:
• Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG). For more
information see https://www.pflag.org/home
• LGBTQ Nation. For more information, see http://www.lgbtqnation.com/
• The Safe Zone Project: This resource has free curriculum available for use
at http://thesafezoneproject.com/
• The Trevor Project provides information about its history, Web source
review, who it is appropriate for, types of support over the media, programs and
services, and so forth at http://www.thetrevorproject.org/