HRC Blog

This post is part of our Welcoming Schools “Back to School” blog series. Welcoming Schools, a project of the HRC Foundation, offers administrators, educators and parents/guardians the tools they need to ensure their elementary schools welcome all students and families. This post comes from Dr. William A. Howe, past-president of the National Association for Multicultural Education and a Welcoming Schools advisory council member:

Yesterday, Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) and Representative Barbara Lee (D-CA) introduced the Repealing Ineffective and Incomplete Abstinence-Only Program Funding Act (the RIIAOPF Act), which would end abstinence-only-until-marriage programs once and for all. HRC has long opposed federal funding for abstinence-only programs because they exclude, or even denigrate, LGBT students.

HRC is hosting a webinar for LGBT parents entitled, “Creating Positive Change in Your Elementary Schools: Strategies and Tools for LGBT Parents.” Parents and educators will offer participants information on advocating for their families in their school community. This is the first of a series of Welcoming Schools webinars.

Today we learned of the suicide of 13-year-old Asher Brown in Houston. Asher took his own life after relentless harassment and bullying at school. Most of the bullying this young man endured was inflicted on him because he was gay. This isn’t the first suicide by a young gay student we’ve heard of – it happens far too often. No parent should have to go through the suffering that Asher’s parents are going through.

We all want our children to learn, thrive and become productive adults. Many students find it difficult to learn, thrive and dream of their futures because of school-based bullying (both traditional and cyber bullying) . We know that bullying is pervasive in our schools. National prevalence studies consistently show that roughly one in five students have been bullied regularly and a similar number have bullied others.