prevention of bullying

Bullying is an extremely important topic that is becoming more and more relevant in our society. Due to media and other outlets, kids are held to extremely high and impossible standards and if someone doesn't look or act the right way, others feel it's appropriate/necessary to call them out and make fun of them. Bullying has become so prominent in our culture because of technological advances which allow bullies to attack other individuals while hiding behind a screen. The LGBTQ community has always been faced with hate crimes and other acts of shaming based off of their gender and sexual identity; they are constantly looked at as being subpar or weird for identifying outside of the binary. Schools are supposed to be a safe place where kids go to learn and develop as an individual and not to be looked down upon for who they are.  Schools need to advocate for their student's mental and physical safety and need to enlist preventative measures to stop bullying from occurring in our schools.

I believe a school's first step to end bullying based on gender and sexual identity would be to educate all of the employees on gender identity. I think it's necessary to first educate staff and ensure their biases don't influence the students they come in contact with. This education would hopefully work to break down their stereotypes and prejudices against the lgbtq community and would also teach them how to identify and prevent bullying from occurring. Next, i think it would be important to create a safe-zone where kids who identify outside of the binary could reach for help and advocate for their needs. This safe group could also be encourage to align with other school groups and educate others to create a more unified environment. I also believe it is extremely important to revise and create policies and procedures that protect individuals need and rights. We should stop segregating kids by gender and stop policing how kids dress and act. School's create gender norms when they should really be challenging and breaking down these socially constructed ideas. Finally, i think it would also be really beneficial to teach kids from a young age about gender and the affect it has on people's lives. If we teach kids from a young age about the variety of differences within each individual maybe they would look at people as individuals instead of labels.