Survey: Iowa LGBT students still unsafe

There’s some good news, but there is also bad news in the way some students perceive their safety at Iowa schools.

The Iowa Pride Network has released the finding from its 2009 School Climate Survey. Click to access the full report.

The Iowa Pride Network, a statewide organization that works to support lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered and questioning students, released its 2009 School Climate Survey today, the third in the biennial series.

While the 203 students who agreed to take the survey reported a decrease in the number of verbal attacks based on sexual orientation, gender or race, they also reported a significant increase in the amount of physical violence in their lives.

And, from responses to new questions added to the survey this year, it is clear that harassment and abusive situations are much more likely to begin a chain of events that can lead to LGBT students harboring suicidal thoughts.

“The whole point of the study is that it can serve as a guidepost for the public, community stakeholders, teachers and principals so that they can really take a look and reflect on where we are now,” said Ryan Roemerman, executive director of IPN.

“No matter how wonderful a teacher or administrator may think their school is, there is something valid in this survey for everyone. They can look at what these students have reported and decide what they could be doing better, because we know that we can always do better.”

The 2007 survey results were collected before the impact of legislative-mandated changes to the state’s Civil Rights Act and anti-bullying policies to include references to sexual orientation and gender identity could be assessed. Since the 2009 survey was the first that would measure the effectiveness of the changes, organizers were hoping to see movement toward greater student safety. What they found, however, was that more than half of the survey respondents did not know what the Iowa Safe Schools law is, and that roughly 72 percent did not feel that their school had adopted such a law.

“It seems like that since we have a safe schools law that everything should be find, but it is not fine,” Roemerman said. “As we all know, a law isn’t any good unless it is enforced.”

Surveys were collected earlier this year from May to June, and included 88 LGBT students, 86 LGBT-affirming straight students and 29 non-LGBT-affirming straight students. Although the surveys were distributed and collected in the months directly following an Iowa Supreme Court decision allowing same-sex marriage in the state, there was no direct question about the current event as a part of the survey. While it may seem reasonable to believe that some of the tension and celebration surrounding that event may be reflected within the survey results, Roemerman said there is simply no way to measure the role of marriage equality in the results.

“I can’t say that because there wasn’t a question on that,” Roemerman said. “I think we can pretty much access that students do pick up on what they hear in their home, but I don’t know if that was reflected in these students’ feelings or not. I’m sure some people might draw that conclusion, but I’m not going to. But, I think that some people might look at that as a possibility.”

When compared with 2007 results, the 2009 survey respondents were less likely to report having heard a homophobic remark in their school, and were also less likely to have been verbally or physically harassed — pushed or shoved — because of their sexual orientation. The 2009 results regarding physical assault — punching, kicking or weapon injuries — were significantly higher than what was reported in either 2007 or 2005. Sixteen percent of students reported some incident of physical assault because of their sexual orientation or gender expression.

“How I look at bullying and harassment is that it often starts with the verbal,” Roemerman said. “You know, a student will say things like ‘you are gay’ or ‘you are a faggot’ and it will start there. If no one intervenes then it tends to move to harassment. And then, after harassment, it starts to move to actual physical assault. So, to me, if we can stop the verbal harassment where it starts, then I think we are on a good path.”

Because IPN is seeing an uptick in violence, the group is launching a “Make It Real” manual that will help students understand the law changes, and how each can be applied to different situations. An online public service announcement about the manual and where to download it is also being distributed through social networking and other affiliated groups.

Roemerman reports that IPN has also worked closely with the Iowa Department of Education to create a standardized incident report form used by the schools and received by the state to include a check box for all the categories specified in the safe schools law.

“There was this jumbled narrative as to why someone was harassed,” he said. “What we asked the Department of Education to do was develop a report that would have all the categories so that the state can really monitor and find out how many students get picked because of sexual orientation or race. They will actually be able to have hard numbers instead of having a certain percentage of the incidents just being listed as ‘other’ on a form.”

The new reporting form is being piloted this year, according to Roemerman, and is expected to become a mandatory practice next year.

Another key piece for IPN is the creation of a Safe Schools Certification Program to reward schools that do reach beyond the basics of what is required to ensure that their staff and students understand the law.

“There is a difference between a school that simply says to look in this section of the student handbook, or to view this file on a Web site, to find out what the law is and a school that is really pro-active,” Roemerman said. “Technically, those schools that do the least are fulfilling their requirement, but what we are looking for is schools to go beyond that. We are looking for schools to make sure that their teachers discuss it and that their students know what it means and how they are protected.”

In addition to the new programs, IPN will continue to foster a network of gay-straight alliances and diversity groups throughout the state.

“It’s important to have these groups available because these are spaces where students feel comfortable,” Roemerman said.

In order to help all of Iowa’s students feel safe why they are at school, all Iowans — administrators, teachers, parents and even the general public — are going to need to become more involved.

“We know that students who feel they are not safe skip school, and that impacts their academic achievement. We also know that students who reported that they felt unsafe at school because of their sexual orientation were two times as likely as those who had not felt unsafe to report that they had considered suicide. Students who were verbally harassed because of their sexual orientation were 93 percent more likely to have considered suicide,” Roemerman said.

“This was the first time that we asked questions about suicidal thoughts and, for me, what we found was just really disturbing.”