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Angela
Here's the summary of the report that came out of our state:
http://www.youth.org/loco/PERSONProject/Resources/OrganizingTactics/gov-report.html
Here are a few more sites that will help
http://archive.aclu.org/issues/gay/safe_schools.html
http://www.aclu.org/safeschools/Statistics.html
http://www.glsen.org/cgi-bin/iowa/all/library/record/1413.html
Let me know if you need anything more.
Johanna

>Hi Johanna.  I would LOVE to get my hands on the DOE report
>regarding gay/lesbian harassment.  It would be great ammunition to
>anyone wanting to challenge a book dealing with this subject.  Do
>you remember where you got this report?  Any help would be greatly
>appreciated.  Thanks!
>
>>>>  Johanna Halbeisen <johanna.newsong@RCN.COM> 03/30/04 10:47AM >>>
>May I add my experience as a K-4 librarian?  Several years ago I had
>a run-in with parents and administration over trying to address
>homophobic name calling in the fourth grade.  I couldn't read a book
>to these fourth grade classes that had the syllable "gay" (as in the
>name Gaylord), without getting titters and snorts. "Gay" was a very
>common put down.  This kind of name calling not only hurts the kids
>who are not heterosexual, or whose parents are gay or lesbian.  The
>limits of acceptable behavior for boys are being tightened when they
>fear being called "gay" by their classmates.  Read Oliver Button is a
>Sissy, by Tomie dePaola.  A fourth grade girl who I first mistakened
>for a boy acknowledged being teased a lot.  And I heard she attempted
>suicide later on in middle school.  Which reminds me, we are talking
>life and death here.  One third of the teenagers who attempt suicide
>are gay or lesbian.
>
>To quote from the letter I sent to my administration during the bruhaha:
>Some people think that gay and lesbian issues should not be discussed
>until middle school or high school, but this contradicts both the
>Department of Education guidelines and current research which shows
>that by seventh grade acts of discrimination on the basis of sexual
>orientation are firmly entrenched in our educational environment and
>harming both the victims and the perpetrators.  By seventh grade, the
>harm has already been done.  Name calling by elementary school
>students leads to physical and verbal harassment and abuse by seventh
>grade.  We need to address the issues at preschool and elementary
>levels in order to prevent this harm at the middle school level.
>
>I'm in a conservative community.  My emphasis in book selection is on
>presenting families with two moms or two dads.  Most of the books
>don't use the words "gay" or "lesbian".  This is NOT about sex, any
>more than talking about a family with one mom and one dad is.  It is
>about making ALL children feel affirmed.  Not so many years ago, you
>never saw stories about parents getting or being divorced.  Kids
>whose parents were divorced were quiet about it, fearful of what
>others would say.  I try to do the same thing for single parent
>families, for kids being raised by their dads, their grandparents, in
>foster families.  For me, it is an issue about name-calling and about
>different kinds of families.
>
>Here's another link for bibliographies:
>http://www.glsen.org/cgi-bin/iowa/all/booklink/index.html
>
>Johanna
>--
>Johanna Halbeisen, Library Media Teacher
>Woodland Elementary School (K-4)
>80 Powder Mill Rd, Southwick, MA 01077
>johanna.newsong@rcn.com
>
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