Parents and schools to tackle homophobic bullying of students

SCHOOL management, principals and parents have joined forces to help fight the war on bullying and discrimination against gay and lesbian students.

Recent research funded by the National Office for Suicide Prevention found that 58% of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people went to schools where homophobic bullying took place and more than half had been called abusive names by students. Almost two-thirds said there was no teacher or other adult they could talk to at school and one-in-five missed school because they were threatened or afraid of getting hurt.

Guidelines for principals on sexual orientation issues by the Department of Education and the Gay and Lesbian Equality Network (GLEN) have been circulated to second-level schools.