Wearing Blue to Fight Bullies

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As I sat down to eat with a couple of my colleagues I noticed something unusual for lunchtime: My classroom was slowly filling with students.

Assuming that my co-teacher knew what was going on, we continued to get out our food and looked forward to a few calm moments. But more than three-dozen students soon arrived. That’s when I discovered that I was about to sit in on our school’s first Gay-Straight Alliance meeting.

Janelle opened the meeting and welcomed everyone to what she hoped would be the first of many gatherings to discuss issues of prejudice surrounding sexual identity. While each person publicly introduced himself or herself, it was clear that today’s lunch would not involve casual chatting with other teachers.

“Why does everyone here think we need a GSA at our school?” Janelle asked. “What brought you here?”

Hands slowly went up as the room filled with reasons.

“I’m here to strengthen relationships between people,” one said.

“I want people to be able to feel comfortable at school no matter what their sexuality,” said another.

“I heard from people at my old school that this was an anti-gay school, and I want to make sure people know that it’s not true,” a young woman stated.

A dozen or so different voices echoed related sentiments, but one stood out.

“I want to make sure that no one is harassed. I don’t think it’s right for anyone to come to school and get pushed around or made fun of.”

I reflected on the recent incidents of national notoriety concerning bullying and harassment, some of which have been tied to sexual identity. I thought about the Teaching Tolerance film “Bullied,” about a young man who fought for the right to be safe at school. I wondered if maybe the GSA could be more than just a group that works on building public awareness. Could it also become a group of front-line youth activists who stand up to bullies of all stripes?

I looked around the room and saw the potential. These students chose to come together to identify challenges facing students at our school and to meet them head on. These students were thoughtful, committed young people. They wanted to make sure that everyone is safe, especially those who are often marginalized because of gender or sexual preference.

A few days later I heard about Sabrina Schlichting, a 14-year-old high school student from Minnesota. She organized a school-wide event to raise awareness about bullying by calling on her fellow students to wear blue. In a news story Schlichting commented that she wanted to see more “blue days” and that she hoped the trend would spread nationwide.

I hope so too, and I plan to share her story at our next GSA meeting. And if the GSA decides to go along with it, I think I’ll be wearing one of these new blue "Bullies Suck" t-shirts just to make sure my students understand how I feel about the issue.

Greenslate is a humanities teacher at High Tech High School in San Diego, Calif.