Moderator: Good morning, and welcome to Viewpoint. Director of Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network Kevin Jennings is here to answer our questions about bullying and harassment in schools. Let’s go onto our questions.

Kevin Jennings: I'm happy to be here to talk about this very important subject.

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Chevy Chase, Md.: Unfortunately, the term "gay" has become a frequently heard put-down on elementary school playgrounds in our area. Could you please discuss this phenomenon? I wonder if it widespread in other parts of the country? What are effective approaches for stopping this hurtful homophobic language by young children?

Kevin Jennings: Yes, "well that's so gay" has become insult of choice even for elementary school students like your child. Our survey found that over 70% of students hear this phrase frequently at their high school and a similar survey done last year by Widmeyer Communications found that 68% of high school students say that they personally frequently use the expression "that's so gay" in a pejorative manner.

With elementary aged students, I believe this is largely not so much bigotry as it is simple ignorance. I don't think most of them have any conscience association between that word and gay people. The most effective intervention I have seen is to simply stop a child and say, "what did you mean by that." What this allows a parent or teacher to do is to better understand why the child is using that language and how to educate them that it is probably not the right word to communicate whatever it is they wish to communicate. I don't believe that simply scolding children is effective or useful long-term as I believe all it does is cause the students to stop using the language around the adults. It doesn't get them to stop using the language; they just stop using it around adults. Something that gets the child to reflect on their own word choices is always going to be more effective than slapping them on the wrists will be.

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Bethesda, Md.: Kevin, what are the warning signs to tell if your child is a victim of bullying? What is the best way to address bullying to protect your child?

Kevin Jennings: Any sudden change in your child's behavior is something a parent should immediately address. For example, if your son or daughter had been hanging out with a particular group of kids and suddenly they stopped coming to your house, it's a good idea to ask why. Children that are victims of bullying often become depressed and withdraw from school activities, social interactions and sometimes even family life. If you see any of these signs, it's a good idea to simply sit down with your child, note what you're seeing, and ask an open-ended question such as, "I'm wondering if something has happened to cause this change in your life."

The problem is victims of bullying often feel a great deal of shame and are reluctant to tell adults that this is what is going on. So you are going to have to raise the issue. If you find that bullying is an issue with your child, certainly approach the school and under certain circumstances, talking to other parents, particularly if you already have a relationship with those parents, can be effective.

I would urge you to check out www.nonamecallingweek.org which is a program that GLSEN and a group of over 40 national education youth and welfare organizations have created to address name calling in grades 5-8 and have a wonderful video that gives advice to students about what to do if they are indeed the victims of bullying.

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Alexandria, VA: Isn't teasing just a rite of passage? I was teased as a child, and came out just fine.

Kevin Jennings: Well, the title of the report released yesterday was called "From Teasing to Torment" and I think we need to make a distinction when it comes to harassment, which is what the Harris Poll people were investigating. Harassment is when you are targeted for verbal or physical threats because of your membership in a particular group, such as one's based on a religion or sexual orientation. In the Harris Poll, upon which from teasing to torment is based, 65% of high school students reported being the victim of some kind of verbal or physical harassment while at school. So yes, harassment is common, but that doesn't make it okay or acceptable because we know that it has a negative impact on students' academic performance and mental health. That is why schools need to address it because it is first and forecast an education issue. Plain and simply, you can't focus on learning if you're worried about your time on safety.

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Alpharetta, Ga.: What do you think teachers can do to help make sure that schools are safe for all students?

Kevin Jennings: As a former high school history teacher myself, I know that what students want their teachers to do is to not "let it slide" when we hear hateful language or see hateful behavior because bullies perceive that we are giving them permission to do this when we do. So, first and foremost, when you see bad things happening, speak up. But I would urge teachers to not just be reactive, but to be proactive.

For example, at the beginning of the school year, make it clear that you will not tolerate name-calling or putdowns in your class, thereby setting expectations with your students for what kind of behavior you will or will not accept. In my 10 years of teaching, I found that students will live up to the expectations we set for them and if we make it clear that we expect them to be respectful and civil, I have found that most students will do so.

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Des Moines, Iowa: Why are you singling out gay kids?

Kevin Jennings: Unfortunately, what we found out through the research done by the Harris Poll people is that the people who get singled out in school by their peers are the students who either their peers don't like the way they look, or they are or are perceived to be gay or lesbian.

The "singling out" is done by the kids themselves. The top two causes, according to students themselves in the poll, of bullying and harassment, are appearance or real or perceived sexual orientation. Of all the categories we investigated, those were the top two and religion was the least likely cause for kids being singled out for harassment.

I think, when we see a group of kids who are being singled out by their peers for especially hateful treatment, we have to respond to that behavior and make it clear it's unacceptable, no matter what the kid is -- whether they be short or gay or Muslim or Latino, they should know that if they get singled out at school because of who they are, that schools will do something. And, as I mentioned before, unfortunately, the primary problems based on this data are based on appearance and sexual orientation, so we can either ignore them or we can deal with them. I'm a big believer that the latter is the better approach.

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Washington, D.C.: Do LGBT students who are bullied have someone identified in the school to turn to, confide in, and receive support? That sure would've helped me.

Kevin Jennings: This is a very hit or miss situation. Fortunately, there are now over 3,000 schools that have student clubs commonly known as Gay-Straight Alliances. So clearly in most schools, students have someone to turn to.

Unfortunately, this represents only about 15% of America's high schools. So in most schools, there is no formal support system for these students. In the 2003 GLSEN National School Climate Survey, a survey of LGBT high school students, we found that having supportive adults strongly correlated with a students' sense that they belonged at school -- so, having adults who you perceive as supporting you is critical for students. Unfortunately, I would say, in all honestly, most LGBT students still don't have that.

I believe most teachers want to be supportive but are either unaware of the needs or even the existence of this population, which represent in the Harris Poll, 7% of high school students. Or, they simply don't have the training to know what to do. I think that, if more systems prioritized teacher training on this issue, more students would find the support they need from adults to find what they need to do well in the school.

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Chevy Chase, Md.: Do you think the current administration would support policies that protect gays and lesbians in schools?

Kevin Jennings: I believe this is an education issue, not a political issue. When students don't feel safe in school, they cannot learn. Period.

In 2001, Lake, Smell and Perry did a survey of American parents in which 83% of them said they wanted their child's school to have a policy protecting LGBT students from violence and harassment. Even 77% of self-identified, born-again Christians in the poll supported such policies.

I think this shows the vast majority of Americans, regardless of their political or religious viewpoint, agree that schools should be safe places where students can concentrate on learning. There are probably few ideas in America, allow which we can all come together, but this is clearly one of those. It's not a Republican or Democrat issue, it's not a conservative or liberal issue, it's an education and child welfare issue, and I would like to think that regardless of political affiliation, we will all put what our children need first. What Gay and Lesbian children need is to be safe at school. And the vast majority of American parents want to make sure they get that.

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Washington, D.C.: What role should state legislatures play in bullying prevention? Should/are more states enacting statutes designed to reduce bullying in schools, particularly bullying that targets LGBT students?

Kevin Jennings: Education is primarily a state and local issue. So we definitely need leadership from state legislatures. In 42 states, the existing laws do not protect LGBT students from bullying and harassment in schools. So we would obviously like to see those laws broadened to ensure that gay students have the same kinds of protection as students who are bullied because of their religion and race already have.

In every state, I would like to see data collection on this issue of bullying become part of how we evaluate our schools. We have placed such an emphasis on standardized test scores, that I'm afraid that issues like this are getting lost and I think the only way to prevent that is if we mandate the collection of data and hold schools accountable for providing a safe environment, just like we hold them accountable for getting their reading scores up.

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Gaithersburg, Md.: My son complains that his teacher won't do anything when kids pick on him. What can I do about this?

Kevin Jennings: The most important thing a parent needs to do in a situation such as this one is create a paper trail.

When administrators see that you are doing so, they will realize that you are serious and frankly, their fear of getting sued will take over. There have been numerous lawsuits holding schools accountable for failing to respond to parental complaints that teachers and administrators did not take action when notified of problems. And administrators are highly aware of this.

I wish your son's teacher would do the right thing because it's the right thing to do. But, if he or she won't, make it clear that you will take the problem higher up the chain, even to the courts if necessary, and this will probably get them off the dime.

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Arlington, TX: Are the Harris study results available to anyone? How do we get them?

Kevin Jennings: Yes, the study is available here.

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Ithaca, NY: How would I go about starting a GSA?

Kevin Jennings: GLSEN has wonderful resources to help students who want to start or strengthen their student clubs which can be found here.

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Harrisburg, Pa.: It has been suggested that the state create a law against school bullying. How would you advise such a law to look? Bullying is wrong, yet how do you define it and how do you react to a juvenile incidence without going overboard while also protecting those who are abused?

Kevin Jennings: The key to an effective law is a clear definition of bullying and harassment which essentially is repeated behavior directed toward and individual over time because of their membership in a particular group that demonstrably impacts their ability to learn.

Schools need to have such a definition to draw the distinction between the first amendment rights of free speech that students have and inappropriate behavior that is not legally protected.

A sample bill can be found <"http://www.glsen.org/cgi-bin/iowa/all/library/record/360.html">here.

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Washington, D.C.: I was called "queer" in sixth grade before I knew what it was, so I do sympathize but I wonder if it would help to have gone to a school, as they have in NYC, with all gay youth, as I think I would have dealt with the insults that came later even less well after being in such a protected environment.

Kevin Jennings: The particular school that you are referencing, the Harvey Milk School, was specifically started to serve students who have already been driven out of the school system by harassment and who are unlikely to get a diploma. It has been highly successful in graduating the students, at a rate of over 90%, which I might add is much higher than the NYC system as a whole. But even the people who run it would describe it as a tragic necessity, i.e. it's a necessity because these young people aren't going to get a diploma any other way, but it's tragic that it's needed in the first place.

I don't see this as a long term solution to the problem of bigotry in our schools. I believe what we need to do is to make sure that every school is safe so that the day will come when places like the Harvey Milk school are no longer necessary.

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Chicago, IL: Does GLSEN have support from other educational groups, or is this something that you are leading?

Kevin Jennings: We were very grateful to be joined at the official release of this report yesterday in Washington by the executive directors by the American Association of School Administrators (which represents all school superintendents), the National School Board Association, and the National Association of School Psychologists.

I believe there is a growing consensus among educational organizations that this is an urgent problem that we must address as it is impacting our students' ability to learn in a very negative way.

We're very proud of the partnerships we have formed to come up with the programs to do so such as those found at nonamecallingweek.org, that are endorsed by over 40 national organizations.

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Arlington, VA: What is your response to parents who feel that speaking with the teacher or the bullies' parents is going to make the situation worse?

Kevin Jennings: Ignoring the problem is the worse thing you can do.

I would strongly urge any parent who is aware their child is being bullied to demand action from their school and to document those demands in writing. Bullies count on the fact that by standards will not intervene. Their behavior will continue until someone does.

So I think that not addressing the situation is simply going to ensure that the problem continues and probably gets worse.

Another interesting fact to consider is that bullying is not good for the bullies either who are 4x more likely to end up in jail as adults than students who do not engage in bullying behaviors. When we don't intervene, we're teaching the bullies that this behavior is OK and they will eventually take this behavior out into the streets or into their workplaces where there's going to be very negative impacts on their lives or on those they are victimizing.

If we taught these young people earlier that this behavior is not acceptable, we would avoid some of these problems in the first place.

There's a wonderful organization that has researched the link between bullying in school and criminal behavior that has many fantastic researches called Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, which you can access by clicking www.fightcrime.org.

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Boston, Mass.: I'm very disillusioned by the political climate in this country. Do you think we are going backwards in terms of gay rights? And are gay youth being hurt by the constant attacks from the right-wing to the point where they feel less comfortable or afraid in coming out?

Kevin Jennings: I definitely feel that the negative public discourse on LGBT issues has the effect of making LGBT youth feel even more isolated than they often do already.

Students have reported to me that the issue of gay marriage has often been discussed in such vitriolic and hatred language both on their campus and in their community that they actually have become quite frightened for their own physical safety.

Of course the Chinese character for crisis combines two characters: one for danger and one for opportunity. I think schools could take advantage of the current political controversies to teach students how to disagree in a civil and respectful manner while still defending their own point of view.

Certainly there's a wide range of opinions of LGBT issues and students have the constitutionally protected right to believe what they want -- as do all American citizens. But if we can take a volatile subject like this and teach young people how to have a civil discussion when feelings run so high and convictions are so deep, we will be doing a great service in teaching them the appropriate behavior of citizens in a democracy.

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Moderator: Unfortunately, our hour is up. Thank you for taking our questions, Kevin.

Kevin Jennings: Thank you for having me.

There is good news and bad news to be found in the Harris Poll data that is in the "From Teasing to Torment" report released yesterday.

The bad news, obviously, is that 65% of high school students report experience bullying and harassment while at school.

The good news is there are things schools can do that make a difference. For example, students who attend schools that have clear anti-harassment policies which cover all categories including ones like sexual orientation and religion are 25% less likely to report that bullying is a serious problem in their school.

Conversely, students who attend schools that lack clear and inclusive policies tell us they are 3x more likely to skip school than their peers in their schools with such policies. So we know that there are things we can do which make a difference and it's time for our policymakers in Congress, in State Capitals and in our local school boards to take action by enacting such policies so that students, instead of worrying about their safety at school, will go back to worrying about their homework and the next math test.

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