As LGBT History Month rolls on, LGBT organizations at the University are doing what they can to highlight the issue of bullying in schools.
Micah Caswell, graduate assistant in the Office of Multicultural Affairs, has worked on passing legislation to prevent bullying for the last three years and is gearing up for a fourth try.
While a bill will not be introduced in the state legislature until the spring, LGBT History Month provides a stage to start to gather support.
Caswell said the hope is to pass a bill designed to protect all marginalized children who are bullied, not just those who are LGBT.
“From research, we know there are specific characteristics that make children more likely to be bullied,” Caswell said. “Things like sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, race, religion, national origin, language ability and exceptionalities are all on that list.”
Caswell said he believes changes in legislation get shut down every year because sexual orientation is included in the list of characteristics.
“Whenever there is debates on an anti-bullying bill, it always focuses on sexual orientation,” Caswell said.
Because the bill gets hung up on the inclusion of sexual orientation, Caswell said the strategy is shifting away from including an enumerated list and focusing more on combating bullying in a broader sense.
Caswell said the goal is to pass a bill that will include something most can agree on — like keeping children in school and off the streets — while also providing training for teachers and administrators to better deal with bullying.
“We want to write a bill that is half anti-bullying, and half restorative justice, in order to minimize out-of-school suspensions and keep kids out of the school-to-prison pipeline,” Caswell said.
Caswell said as children move on to middle and high school, they start to notice the things that make them different and must learn that picking on others can be damaging.
“Eventually kids grow and they become more aware of differences,” Caswell said. “Things like sexual orientation or race start to matter when before they did not.”
As proponents of an anti-bullying bill gather support, Caswell is hopeful a new year and a new strategy will succeed where past efforts have fallen short.
“It is about kids,” Caswell said. “It comes down to that we need to pass something that will protect marginalized children, especially those that are LGBT.”