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12/14/2020 10:00 AM EST
Editor’s Note: Welcome to Weekly Education: Coronavirus special edition. Each week, we will explore how the pandemic is reshaping and upending education as we know it across the country, from pre-K through grad school. We will explore the debates of the day, new challenges and talk to movers and shakers about whether changes ushered in now are here to stay.
preventing the wrong actions of the bully, not focusing on the characteristics of the victims. because it doesn t matter why the victim was targeted. what matters is that their harm harming them was wrong for any reason. okay. eliza, your group has been accused by focus on the family of praedi inin inin ining what y agenda in schools. why do you need to talk about or mention gays and lesbians in anti-bullying efforts? well, candi and i absolutely agree that all students need to be protected. the fact is, and the data bears out, if you don t mention the specific problem teachers don t act and students don t have a better experience. our bill would cover all students but indicate specifically that you must also include attention to these characteristics. and when you do, our data shows rates of harassment and victimization of lgbt, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students goes down. if you don t mention that, there s no effect. candi, are you opposed to
dealing with this. we really feel like the most effective policies and initiatives would be ones that protect any child against bullying for any reason. what does that mean? specifically, how do you do that? the correct focus would be preventing the wrong actions of the bully, not focusing on the characteristics of the victims. it doesn t matter why the victim was targeted. what matters is that their harm harming them was wrong for any reason. eliza, your group has been accused by focus on the family by spreading what they call a gay agenda in schools. why do you need to talk about or mention gays and lesbians in anti-bullying efforts? candi and i absolutely agree that all students need to be protected. the fact is and the data bears out, if you don t mention the specific problem, teachers don t act and students don t have a better experience. our bill would cover all students but indicate specifically that you must also
teachers in schools that have these policies are more likely to stop this and kids are less likely to be harassed and victimized and essentially, as rosalyn is referring to, it s a dynamic in a classroom. bullies need our help. victims need our help and bystanders need our help. they need adults to act, to take care of the culture of that classroom and build a culture of respect. candi, your final thought? what we re concerned about are the parents we re getting phone calls from that don t want controversial sexual topics introduced to their kids without their permission, especially at the kindergarten level. that s why we wanted to say this issue doesn t need to be politicized. we don t need to bring adult political issues into it. we want all kids to be protected from bullying, regardless of how they identify. appreciate you being on, eliza byard as well and rosalyn wiseman.
truetolerance.org, which spurred some of this discussion, is that we re hearing from parents that are having homosexuality lessons presented to their kindergartners in the name of anti-bullying and we don t feel that s necessary and even the most effective way to prevent bullying. let me bring in rosalyn on that to address that point. actually, rosalyn, let me come to you in a second. eliza, is that true? are you guys addressing listen, i think the first thing i want to say is that focus on the family has chosen and, candi, you have chosen to attack the safe schools improvement act. what we find is that when school level policies actually mention sexual orientation and gender identity, rates of bullying and harassment go down. and this is for all students. in 2005 students of all sexual orientations, races, religions told us when their school had this kind of policy in place, those students were less likely to say that bullying was a serious problem in their school. rosalyn, yo