Creating a Supportive School Environment by Establishing Gay-Straight Alliances: Barriers to an Urban Implementation

• In Event: Roundtable Session 104
  In Roundtable Session: LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning) Bullying in Urban Schools: Creating Supportive School Climates to Help It Get Better

Abstract

Recently concern over LGBTQ bullying in schools has increased in response to a series of high profile LGBTQ teen suicides, and the ensuing preventative campaign – the It Gets Better Project. The research literature documents both high levels of victimization of LGBTQ students in schools and the negative consequences of victimization (Kosciw, Greytak, Diaz, and Bartkiewicz, 2010). Researchers have identified associations between the presence of a GSA or other supports with lower levels of victimization for LGBTQ students (Greytak, this submission). This suggests that promoting changes in school policy to accommodate GSAs or other supportive groups may be a promising locus of intervention. The current case study documents the successes and challenges of an attempt to establish a GSA at one New York City campus high school. Over the course of the 2010-2011 school year, CBO staff at a large Title 1 campus high school worked with students and school staff to establish a GSA-style student organization. A prior attempt by CBO staff to establish a GSA at the same campus high school in the 2007-2008 school year had been unsuccessful.

Method
To gain a complete contextual picture of the forces impacting the decision to change the policy, the research team triangulated across perspectives by conducting key informant interviews with school staff, program implementers, and participating students. Interviews were transcribed and coded for emergent themes.

Results
Passive resistance from high level school administrators emerged as a major theme across all interviews. While all interviewees described the school administration as supportive in theory, in practice there were continual changes in the allocation of school resources such as staff time and meeting space that made it difficult for the club to function. Another challenge was sustainability. Although the GSA was able to be sustained through the school year, it remained a pet project of a single CBO staff member. The prior attempt to institute a GSA also relied heavily on one staff member and was not able to be sustained after that staff member’s time was allocated to other projects. Students expressed concerns that the program would be discontinued and the school climate would be worsened by a second failed attempt to establish a GSA. Many interviewees also identified their ability to leverage the vast media attention being paid to LGBTQ bullying at that time to pressure school administrators to allocate resources. Several interviewees identified that larger media context as the crucial change since the prior attempt to establish a GSA.

Significance
While the presence of GSAs is associated with lower levels of victimization for LGBTQ students in urban schools, barriers to instituting GSAs remain. Despite the presence of a putatively supportive school administration, and overwhelming media attention to the phenomena of LGBTQ bullying in public schools, students and staff who attempted to institute a GSA encountered significant resistance to allocating school resources, and reported concerns about sustainability. Further research should examine mechanisms for overcoming passive resistance and promoting sustainability beneficial to urban schools and systems instituting similar LGBTQ supports.

Author

• Amanda C. Thompkins, King County Department of Community and Human Services