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ROUGHLY 50% OF LGBT+ students said they have heard homophobic or transphobic remarks from teachers and other staff members at school, according to a new survey.
The 2019 School Climate Survey was published today by LGBT+ charity BeLonG To. The results indicate that 73% of LGBT+ students surveyed feel unsafe at school, with almost half saying this is because of their sexual orientation.
48% of students surveyed said they heard homophobic remarks and 55% reported hearing transphobic remarks from teachers and other staff members at school.
CEO of BeLonG To Youth Services Moninne Griffith said this study should act as a “wakeup call” for government officials, schools and students to take immediate action on this issue.
“Despite misconceptions, growing up LGBTI+ isn’t all rainbows post-the marriage equality referendum. Our findings indicate the intense discrimination, harassment, isolation and stigma that LGBTI+ students experience in Ireland,” said Griffith.
Worse still, the research reveals that some staff members turn a blind eye to, and sometimes even contribute, anti-LGBTI+ remarks.
The report was launched today to celebrate a decade of Stand Up Awareness Week which began yesterday in secondary schools around the country and will continue over the next few days. The week invites people to take a stand against LGBT+ bullying.
‘They outed me to everyone. It was horrible.’
34% of LGBT+ students in the survey said they avoided bathrooms due to safety concerns and over 85% said they felt deliberately excluded by peers.
In anonymous responses to the survey, some students described their situations at school.
“I told my friends I was gay in first year and they outed me to everyone. It was horrible. People scribbled slurs on my photos around the school and wrote a slur on my locker in marker. I told my teacher and she basically told me I shouldn’t have come out then, as if it was my choice in the first place,” one student said.
“I was physically and verbally harassed while I was in school based on my sexual orientation and because I was more masculine than other girls,” another anonymous student said.
Seven in 10 said they weren’t taught anything positive about LGBT+ identities in school.
The study also found that around 77% of LGBT+ students experience verbal harrassment, 38% experience physical harassment and 11% experience physical assault due to their sexual orientation or gender expression.
Over two-thirds of LGBT students said they hear anti-LGBT+ remarks from other students and one-third feel that other students aren’t accepting of LGBT+ identities.
The students are also 27% more likely to miss school and 8% less likely to pursue third-level education. However, almost all of the students in the study had identified at least one staff member at school who was supportive of LGBT+ students.
788 students aged between 13 and 20 were included from every county in the Republic of Ireland in the study conducted online by BeLonG To Youth Services and Columbia University.
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I’m getting it. 1st time. Everyone should get it this year. €20 quid or so in the chemist.
@Deirdre O C: got it last week chemist said it was free
@Deirdre O C:
€30.00 in boots if you don’t fit into the at risk category or live with someone at risk. Generally they are only giving it to the AT RISK or those that live with an AT RISK person because of low stocks.
I was willing to pay the 30.00 but got it for free because I live with 2 people at risk.
My partner had a local reaction to it last year. But didn’t this year.
I’m in the vulnerable category due to diabetes and other issues so I get it every year and haven’t had so much as a runny nose in at least 5 years.
Won’t need it as we’re all wearing masks
@Rory Mackle: You know masks won’t fill the GSK coffers though!
@LD: toxic comment
@Teresa O’Halloran: Same to you my friend!
@Rory Mackle: The vunerable do need it as we’re not all wearing masks and/or social distancing where appropriate. Hence why Covid19 is spreading again. Not getting it myself as I’m neither a vunerable person nor in regular close contact with vunerable people. With under 2 million total doses for a population of 4.9 million, the vunerable, those in close contact with them and healthcare workers should come first. The remainder can then be sold to those for whom the flu is a nasty inconvenience rather than a life threatening illness.
Anti vaccination crowd will love this
@Mmark Dos Santos Cahill: I don’t think they will.
@Stephen Gaffney: Earth to Steve, he was being sarcastic
@Crocodylus Pontifex: How did you detect his sarcasm and not mine?
Got mine this week. Had it booked since start of September. All good, just a wee bruise at the injection site.
@Mirabelle Stonegate: Wow you must be still on a high from all the excitement! What are you gonna do with yourself now until you can book your next one.
@LD: I’m just glad I was so on top of things. My parents are struggling to get appointments now. And my pharmacy only got in 30 out of over 100 ordered of their first batch, soi was really lucky to actually get sorted already.
@Mirabelle Stonegate: You wouldn’t even book appointments for your parents while you were so on top of things? Mirabelle Stoneheart more like.
@Fandandi: I went to my pharmacy,mum is trying to get it through her gp, and dad is trying to get it through his pharmacy. Three different places. They knew I made my booking, as I told them how convenient it had been, doing it through the sam McCauley app. If they had wanted appointments booked, I’d have had no issue doing that. They wanted their own appointments, at their preferred places.
@Mirabelle Stonegate: Don’t pay any heed to them. The anti-vaxxers are upset you actually got the jab and will use any excuse to have a go at you.
I want a debunking article please. I still can’t get the hang of this thinking for myself stuff
Why did catriona Perry and rte crew travel to the “epicentre ” of the deadly deadly virus today, in Derry
Did tracksuit wearing (thats never seen a track ) Stephen Nolan put them up in his isolation unit
I’ve never seen such unity between North and south
Got my jab last week sixteenth year running never got the flu in that time
@Sean Swords: what?
@Sean Swords: sixteen years running is an awful lot of running… Your legs must be like tree trunks at this stage.
Considering masks, social distance, higher hygiene and lockdown there will be far less flu around than usual. That’s what’s happened in Argentina and Australia earlier this year.
Can we get the Russian Covid-19 vaccine?
@Tony Ember: niet comrade
In the current environment it should be free. I will pay for it but so many can’t x
@Joanne Stack: I got mine free, because my mother, whom I live with, has diabetes and heart disease. They’re kinds throwing them at people this year, if they even dip a toe in a vulnerable category.
Got it last week sixteenth year running never had the in all that time
@Sean Swords: I’ve never got it and haven’t had the flu in my entire 41 years
Nasal vaccine ?? Never heard of that until recently. What does it entail? A needle up the nose or what? Not sure my kids will be doing thst
have your say