School Ignores Anti-Gay Bullying for More Than Two Years

At the Erma Stephenson Elementary School, you can be taunted by classmates with anti-gay slurs for two years, and school officials will adamantly keep their heads buried in the sand. At least that's the allegation being made by one family in British Columbia, who filed a complaint with the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal arguing that administrators at Erma Stephenson helped foster a climate where their 12-year-old daughter was incessantly bullied and harassed.

The daughter, referred to as "T" in the official complaint, allegedly experienced more than two years worth of bullying, including harassment from several students who repeatedly called her a lesbian and made fun of her for her perceived sexual orientation. "T" also was targeted for her disability -- she has cerebral palsy and a mental disability. The bullying became so bad that several students actually threw a music stand at "T" hitting her on the head.

Yet, according to "T's" parents, school officials and teachers still did nothing to stop the harassment.

Now, here's a shocker. The school district that Emma Stephenson Elementary School is in, Surrey School District? They're one of only a handful of school districts in British Columbia with no set anti-bullying policy that includes addressing homophobia. So it doesn't come as much of a surprise that an incident like this not only goes unpunished, but is allowed to persist for multiple years.

A spokesperson for the school district told Xtra.ca that they couldn't comment on the case, now that it's before the Human Rights Council in British Columbia. But what a missed opportunity for the school district to speak out against anti-gay bullying in all forms, beyond just this specific incident.

Faune Johnson, a staff member at British Columbia's Pride in Education Network, said that ultimately school district leaders need to be held responsible and accountable for not addressing anti-gay harassment inside Surrey schools.

"The administrators take their orders from the district level. It's the district administrators and the board level that should be dealing with this," Johnson told Xtra.

So let's make sure this gets before their eyes. Send a message to both the Surrey School District, as well as Emma Stephenson Elementary School, letting them know that the incident involving "T" underscores a serious problem in their area -- no official policy on the books to equip teachers and staff to deal with anti-gay harassment in the classroom, and no official policy to make students feel like they have a safe space to turn to deal with homophobia.

Anti-gay bullying knows no borders. While many stories that have been covered this Fall deal exclusively with bullying in American school districts, anti-gay harassment in the classroom is just as prevalent north of the border, too. That's one of the reasons why a group of Canadian celebrities lent their voices to an It Gets Better video last week. Check out their video below.

Photo credit: echoforsberg