Ronin Shimizu was 12 years old. He committed suicide earlier this month. He was the victim of relentless bullying at school. He was the only boy on the cheerleading squad at his school in Folsom, California. Classmates taunted him and called him gay.
His parents complained to school officials about the bullying their son suffered. The school department says it followed protocol. Friends say the taunting continued. Ronin’s parents removed him from school and began homeschooling him. The damage had been done.
Children who don’t conform to standard gender roles are at risk. Just for being themselves, they face harassment and abuse. Regardless of their actual orientation, kids who are perceived as gay are bullied, and this persecution puts them at greater risk of suicide and drug and alcohol use. Kids who feel unsafe at school often skip school or drop out rather than face torment in the classroom. Even when they leave school, the pain of their abuse follows them.
A study published in the July 2013 issue of the American Journal of Public Health found that over 10 percent of eighth-graders in a wide-ranging survey in Washington State reported being bullied because of their perceived sexual orientation. Compared with students bullied for other reasons, or not bullied at all, kids bullied because of their perceived sexual orientation had a lower overall quality of life and a higher incidence of depression.
Some 26 percent of male high school seniors who were bullied because of their perceived sexual orientation reported that they had been suicidal during the past year, compared with only 8 percent of those not bullied. Female seniors bullied for perceived sexual orientation also reported rates of suicidal feelings three times greater than their non-bullied peers.
According to the Suicide Prevention Resource Center, 30-40 percent of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer, or LGBTQ, youth have attempted suicide, and a U.S. government study on youth suicide found that LGBTQ youth are more than four times more likely to attempt suicide than their heterosexual peers.
Middle school can be a particularly difficult environment. According to the 2013 GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network) national school climate survey, anti-LGBTQ verbal harassment is much more prevalent in middle school than in high school. Making matters worse, middle school students were less likely than high school students to have access to LGBTQ resources and supports, such as gay-straight alliances.
At any grade level, school anti-bullying campaigns must explicitly address sexual orientation, perceived sexual orientation and gender identity in order to be effective. The 2013 GLSEN survey reports that kids from schools with policies specifically directed at gender identity and orientation were less likely to hear homophobic remarks or be seriously harassed. Students in schools with comprehensive anti-bullying policies were also more likely to report harassment when it did happen and reported that staff intervention was more frequent and effective.
What can we do? We can insist that school anti-bullying policies directly address actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression. We can advocate for an LGBTQ-inclusive curriculum that shows gay people, and people who don’t fit stereotypical gender roles, in a positive light. We can help students form gay-straight alliances in our schools. We can join a local chapter of GLSEN, or start one. If we work in schools, we can order a “safe space” kit from GLSEN and put up stickers and posters that identify our offices and classrooms as safe spaces for LGBTQ students and their allies. We can talk to our kids. We can teach them tolerance, and teach them to talk to us if they, or someone they know, are being bullied.
Until all children are safe, no child is safe. All of us, whether we are parents or not, have a responsibility to protect and defend the rights of children. We cannot afford to lose another beautiful young life to bullying. Our children deserve to live fully, freely, and without fear.
Susan Dickson-Smith is a mother of two and a member of Downeast Maine GLSEN.