About SS4Q

Behaviour Summit Overlooks Bullying

The Behaviour Summit held in Wellington on 16-17 March 2009 needed to focus more on bullying and intolerance. Instead the agenda was dominated by what to do with students with behaviour disorders.

Expert presentations at the Summit focussed on interventions aimed at the 5% of students with severe behaviour problems and the challenges they pose to teachers and to themselves. However, a major international report released in December last year ranked New Zealand second worst among 37 countries for bullying in primary schools with rates more than 50 percent above the international average.

Nathan Brown, from the New Zealand AIDS Foundation (NZAF) and Programme Leader of OUT THERE! a queer youth development project, was a participant at the Summit. Brown says “the Summit’s organisers seemed to medicalise the causes of bullying by blurring behaviour disorders and bullying together. If they had allowed young people on the receiving end of bullying, such as students who are perceived to be gay or lesbian, to participate in the Summit there might have been more discussion about how to actually make schools safer for them.”

A report from the Office of the Children’s Commissioner that was presented at the Summit proposed that whole-school approaches be used which aim to support positive behaviour by changing the school culture. OUT THERE! promotes this as the best means of addressing homophobia and transphobia in schools.

“Support of a whole-school approach is excellent but I was disappointed that there were no ideas about how schools could develop student’s understanding and appreciation of diversity as called for in the Curriculum. If a whole-school approach is to be successful then a central aspect must be to encourage all students to accept and value diversity and difference” says Brown.

Examples of initiatives promoted by OUT THERE! that can form part of a whole-school approach to reduce homophobic bullying include staff diversity awareness training, school processes that help identify homophobia in the school rather than ignore it, a student diversity group to organise school wide campaigns and a comprehensive health programme that covers sexuality and gender diversity. Pink Shirt Day, an international day of action against bullying was actively supported by OUT THERE! recently as an anti-bullying initiative that schools and students can support to send a clear message to students to think again before bullying a peer.

latest policy success

July 2008
New Homophobic Bullying Checks by ERO Welcomed

July’s announcement from Chris Carter, Minister of Education, that the Education Review Office (ERO) will now be required to check that schools have specific strategies in place to address homophobia and other forms of bullying, is being welcomed by SS4Q and national youth development programme, OUT THERE!

“The majority of schools have failed students by tolerating homophobia that marginalises gay and lesbian students. This initiative now sends a clear message that homophobia is something that schools must address as part of creating an inclusive and positive learning environment” said Nathan Brown, National
Coordinator of OUT THERE!

“Words like ‘homo’ and ‘faggot’ are heard in schools and classrooms hundreds of times a day. Homophobic bullying and harassment has been one of the last acceptable forms of discrimination. It is fantastic to see our education system finally
starting to accept that something needs to be done” said Brown.

Studies suggest that schools have a lot of work to do in terms of providing a safe environment for same-sex-attracted students. A University of Otago study in 2003 found only 5% of students and 7% of staff from over 100 high schools believed gay, lesbian or bisexual students would feel safe at their schools.

An ERO review of sexuality education in secondary schools last year found that only 20% of schools gave students the opportunity to explore issues such as homophobia, acceptance, and diversity. The Youth 2000 study found that around one in twelve high school students are non-heterosexual, and more than two-thirds
who reported being attracted to the same or both sexes had not told anyone about their same-sex orientation.