Bullying&ItsPolitics.pdf

Tod A. Roulette “Where Does That Leave LGBTQ Kids?; Bullying & It’s Politics” 7100A, Fall 2017 C. Huang Abel Cedeno (center), free on bail from manslaughter charges stemming from the fatal stabbing of Matthew McCree who he said was assaulting him, with supporters, including gay civil rights attorney Thomas Shanahan, who is filing suit against the Department of Education on his behalf, Abel’s sister Vanessa Cruz, Skye Adrian of FIERCE!, Abel’s stepfather José Ortiz, his mother Luz Hernandez, and his sister Lee Hernandez. On December 18th, 2017 the family of Abel Cedeno, who was charged with murdering a classmate and critically injuring another held a press conference with their gay rights attorney stating they had filed a notice of claim with the office of City Comptroller Scott Stringer on December 18 and will file the suit in the federal court for the Southern District of New York early next month. This lawsuit indicts the city, the Department of Education (DOE), and school administrators and teachers for their history of not to protecting him from anti-gay bullying since he was in sixth grade. In the article printed in Gay City News, veteran reporter Andy Humm wrote, “Asked why he is filing suit, Cedeno told Gay City News, “So the school system can change — and change behaviors [of the bullies] and protect kids that are in need of help, not just send them to a counselor. The policies [dealing with bullying] need to be implemented.” Tod A. Roulette “Where Does That Leave LGBTQ Kids?; Bullying & It’s Politics” 7100A, Fall 2017 C. Huang The contemporary gay rights movement has a long foundation of social, political and legal persuasion and argument based on universal human rights, legal concessions such as Title IX and civil rights law draws upon the U.S. Constitution Bill of Rights ensuring such things as: no taxation without representation, ideals of ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’ not to mention freedom from the state interfering with Church and State. Early on beginning in the 1950’s and 1960’s homosexual rights were posited as antithetical to the order of society: family, a moral community, a psychiatric malignment and an abomination against all faiths. Schools have always been seen viewed and operated by the state as a renforcer of society goals, ideals and also given the power to punish students who violated the accepted morals. Gender roles, patriarchy and the heteronormative paradigm have been instructed in its social activities, curricula and modeled by most of its teachers universally. The school system has become caught between warring political ideologies outside its playgrounds in its administrative offices and at its school board meetings as LGBTQ voices and clout have gained traction. The more the pendulum swung outside the educational system towards more liberal interpretation of individual rights, psychiatric realignment about the pathology of homosexuality and more Christian faiths became embroiled in Liberation Theology and began to question long accepted texts in JudeoChristian tradition about the evils of gay people. The fear of conservatives and religious zealots was early on center around the debate of homosexuals insisting on sex education (during the height of the AIDS Crisis) has not been about teaching about homosexuals in the larger society but about Tod A. Roulette “Where Does That Leave LGBTQ Kids?; Bullying & It’s Politics” 7100A, Fall 2017 C. Huang ‘alternative lifestyles’ (the euphemism used in the early ‘90’s) now centered around the rights of students, the responsibility of the school to its students who identify as LGBTQ and the moral and legal compulsion of schools, administrators and teachers to teach socialization, diversity and instilling self-efficacy in all its students. Studies have shown that young people are ‘coming out’ and being open about questioning their sexuality at a younger age constantly. Sexuality has long been a business of the schools-whether it was chosen or not. Sex education, instruction about marriage and raising children are certainly not foreign to schools and the surrounding controversy of adding such accommodation as daycare, providing condoms or giving information about reproductive rights. In the 21st century for school districts that are amenable to the new cultural terrain and understanding of teaching all students about life, one another and themselves LGBTQ presents an exciting yet challenging topic for educating professional staff, parents and the surrounding community about the value of cultural competency, inclusiveness and diversity. The school that Cedeno attended was a nearly failing school. The Cedeno’s in many ways are the atypical face of LGBTQ rights and family support. They are Latino and live in a poverty stricken area. This is usually not the face of Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) which was founded by white middle class and affluent parents who founded the organization in 1972. Sadly, Cedeno is the face of many of the human deficit stereotypes associated with urban public school students. He now has a police and arrest record, he will not be graduating on time, he comes from a poor family, he is brown and attended a school that has according to its website, 57% student population with disabilities and 20% have Tod A. Roulette “Where Does That Leave LGBTQ Kids?; Bullying & It’s Politics” 7100A, Fall 2017 C. Huang Individual Education Plans. Cedeno has sadly become the new face of an urban dilemma: unsuccessful schools, clashing values, underdeveloped self-efficacy instruction, underfunded and unrealized LGBTQ awareness and anti-bullying campaigns and enforcement. Brown and black students and immigrants in urban public schools are the most vulnerable dependents in the education system. They come from mostly disadvantaged backgrounds, live in high-crime areas, broken families and often live in areas affected by eco-racism. Perhaps his lawsuit against the Department of Education and more will force the department to enlarge its newly founded office of LGBTQ Advocacy-which employs one person meant to service over one million students in this diverse district and it will inspire and frighten other school districts to do more to protect LGBTQ students from bullying, instruct all students about integrity and respect and boundaries in regards to the LGBTQ community. Politics cannot sideline the moral responsibility of the educational system to all its students despite a perceived controversy. References ttp://variety.com/2017/music/news/1-800-273-8255-logic-song-suicide-preventionlifeline-1202542381/ https://www2.ed.gov/rschstat/research/pubs/misconductreview/report.pdf http://recapp.etr.org/recapp/index.cfm?fuseaction=pages.StatisticsDetail&PageID=555 http://www.pspc.education.pa.gov/Educator-Discipline-System-and-Reporting/OverviewDiscipline-System/Pages/Sexual-Misconduct.asp http://gaycitynews.nyc/breaking-charges-abel-cedeno-reduced-manslaughter/ Tod A. Roulette “Where Does That Leave LGBTQ Kids?; Bullying & It’s Politics” 7100A, Fall 2017 C. Huang https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2016/10/12/for-lgbt-students-are-safeschools-enough.html http://www.uwosh.edu/lgbtqcenter/facultystaff/CreatingAnLGBTQInclusiveClassroom.pdf https://thinkprogress.org/understanding-lgbtq-history-931fe0779aad/ https://static1.squarespace.com/static/58056b68f5e2316903750b43/t/58815a252 0099e47b8f77029/1491938265898/sogi-scenarios-for-teacher-adminpractice.pdf