50% of homosexual students bullied, survey finds

HALF of homosexual secondary school students have suffered bullying in the previous three months, a survey has revealed.

The exploratory survey was conducted by the Anti-Bullying Centre at Trinity College Dublin.

The survey gathered information from 123 lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered young people, mostly in their mid to late teens.

Half said they had experienced homophobic bullying in school in the course of the previous three months, from name-calling up to physical attacks.

The project, which was funded by the Irish Youth Foundation, gathered information in partnership with the BeLonG To Youth Project and focussed primarily on Dublin and Cork.

Stephen Minton of Trinity College’s Anti-Bullying Centre said that while more information was coming to light about the scale of homophobic bullying, not enough was being done by the Department of Education to tackle the problem.

“Other sorts of bullying have been tackled for a long while, whereas 2006 is the first time this (issue) has come to light in research literature,” he said.

“I think that could indicate that people are not prioritising it in schools.

“The young people in the survey would be very critical. A lot of people are worried about a general homophobic attitude that exists in schools. School is a very sensitive time and this problem can really affect them.”

He added that the Anti-Bullying Centre was hoping to carry out a more extensive survey on the issue of homophobic bullying and then discuss the findings with teachers’ unions.

Earlier this year, a study conducted by academics at the School of Education at Dublin City University found that 79% of social, personal and health education teachers in secondary schools were aware of instances of verbal bullying where homophobic terms were used.

Former Minister for Youth Affairs Síle De Valera said at the launch of those statistics that the National Educational Welfare Board (NEWB) was in the process of developing updated guidelines for schools on Codes of Behaviour, as provided for under Section 23 of the Education (Welfare) Act, 2000. Once the NEWB guidelines are in place, the department is due to revise the 1993 guidelines on countering bullying behaviour, including the issue of homophobic bullying.

Yesterday a spokesperson for the Department of Education said: “While the minister has not given any commitments to implement the recommendation of that report, they will be considered in the light of the review and updating of the existing guidelines, once the NEWB guidelines for schools on Codes of Behaviour have issued.”