Anderson Cooper 360: how Minneapolis and Bachmann's hometown schools approach antigay bullying

[alp227]

CNN article: "Dealing with gay students, bullying in very different ways":

Minneapolis Public School administrators admit that by no means has bullying been eradicated from their schools. However, they firmly believe that they are leading the way in creating a safe environment for all students.

In January, the school board unanimously passed a unique resolution instructing administrators to track bullying incidents related to the harassment of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender students. The measure also requires all staff to be trained on LGBT issues. It injects LGBT topics into the curriculum, which includes adding an LGBT component to sex ed. They will eventually add an elective high school course on LGBT history.

The Anoka-Hennepin School District, just outside the Twin Cities, made headlines in recent years after seven students committed suicide in 2009 and 2010.

Parents and friends say four of those students were either gay, perceived to be gay or questioning their sexuality. They say, at least two of them were bullied because of their sexuality.

The school district says there is no evidence that the suicides were linked to bullying. Nevertheless, it stirred public debate over the school's sexual orientation curriculum policy.

Although Rep. Michele Bachmann, a Republican presidential candidate for 2012 and a homophobic fundamentalist Christian, graduated from Anoka, the article didn't mention her. Also, Anderson Cooper 360 degrees will have a town hall discussion on Saturday evening at 8PM Eastern (check your local listings elsewhere, maybe it'll be rerun in primetime for West Coasters).

Oh, the top comment, with 27 likes (no registration required for voting on comments)? "Besides Chuck Norris, who wasn't bullied in school? Why are kids such delicate flowers these days? Next football will be replace with flag football due to too many boo boos. "

The 2nd top liked comment (20): ""What to do?" STOP. Stop bullying. Ignorant parents stop teaching your kids its OK to hurt and hate other people. Learn and understand that gay people aren't any different than any other person. Get up in the morning, go to school, go to work, go to church, vote, pay taxes, save for the future, try to make a good life for yourself. Who you love should never have been and should never be grounds for violence or abuse. Period. One can see simply by some of the horrible comments in this site that ignorance persists...but we will silence it once and for all. On that you can be certain." Please vote up the sympathy comments. Disturbing how mixed the reaction is when it should be unanimously shaming the homophobes.

[MinneapolisMatt]

1. Hmm.

My partner teaches in the Minneapolis Public Schools, and whenever any kid says anything out of line he's always said "that's not appropriate".

Pretty neutral if you ask me. Nobody's every complained that I know of. I'll have to ask him.