Students Force School To Recognise Issue Of Homophobic Bullying

A group of students in Wembley have forced their school to recognise the issue of homophobia by making them adapt their bullying policy to cover homophobia specifically.

Talking about the achievement, Grace Organ, who is a student at Queen’s Park Community School, told the Wembley and Kingsbury Times:

“We’ve had friends who were victims of sustained homophobic abuse.

Lots of teachers felt they couldn’t say anything and were afraid to say something.

“We wanted to make the school policy clear, because our school’s ethos of inclusiveness is so strong and it seemed incongruous with that.”

The push for the change in policy first began in September 2008 following a visit from a group called Envision who urged pupils in the school to began a campaign on an issue of their choice. Beginning with an aim of merely pushing for a change in the school’s bullying policy, the campaign quickly grow using not only Facebook but also assemblies and surveys to get pupils involved.

Talking about the issue of homophobic bullying, Grace said the main problem was that it “puts you on the defensive” and added:

“It never gets solved and there is a culture of saying that something is ‘gay’ and people don’t see a correlation between that and bullying. It’s common practice and everyone seems to say it.”

The girls say they think education on the issue is the best way to tackle the problem, something that the Queen’s Park ward Lib Dem Councillor Will Motley agrees with saying:

“This is the ‘Cinderella’ issue of the bullying spectrum. People are often afraid that if they challenge it they will be thought to be gay themselves or that the abuse will turn in their direction.”

And added that teachers had to be central to this stating:

“Teachers are very busy with a complex profession, so a sensitive and difficult issue like this can easily be filed under ‘To be dealt with another day.’”