Introducing GLSEN’s 25 Days for Safer Schools!
Happy back-to-school season! Today, we kicked off GLSEN’s 25 Days for Safer Schools, a back-to-school campaign to get our supporters excited about the many educational resources GLSEN has to offer.
Every day for the next 25 school days, we’ll release a GLSEN resource that students, educators, and other supporters can use to help make their schools safer for all students. We’re also getting ready to celebrate our 25th anniversary next year!
This week, we’re focused on educators. GLSEN research shows that supportive educators can and do make a real difference in the lives of LGBT youth:
- LGBT middle and high school students with many supportive educators felt safer at school and missed fewer days of school because of feeling unsafe.
- When their teachers included LGBT people, history, and events in their curricula, LGBT students said they felt safer at school.
- 8 out of 10 elementary school teachers agreed that they have an obligation to ensure a safe and supportive learning environment for students who may not conform to traditional gender norms.
Here's what we'll be looking at this week:
- The Back-to-School Guide for Educators, giving educators tips on how to start the school year supporting LGBT students
- A blog post from GLSEN's 2014 Educator of the Year, Dr. Laura Taylor
- An Educators' Calendar outlining key observances, days of action and other LGBT-specific events throughout the school year
- The Safe Space Kit, our premier guide to making safe spaces in classrooms, hallways, locker rooms and extracurricular activities
- Ready, Set, Respect!, a toolkit for elementary educators
- Our guide to supporting LGBT students of color
- A webinar on supporting transgender and gender nonconforming students
Each Friday, we’ll post a summary of the previous week’s resources at glsen.org/backtoschool. Stay tuned for this week’s resources, and don’t forget to follow the conversation online using the hashtag #GLSENbacktoschool!