The Sydney Morning Herald from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia • 38

THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD SATURDAY APRIL 5 1997 38 News Review One courageous stand against alleged homophobic harassment has suddenly put the room may be safer But the schoolyard is a jungle he says where no-one can be trusted Neither teacher nor student can be relied upon to stopay education system on trial DAVID PASSEY reports on the anguish and the accusations phobia infiltrates all levels of our society that docs not justify it ahhfigii it may partiy explain the inaction This is a core human rights issue and the Education Department has a responsibility to act Gay vilification is debilitating an entire class of children eroding their esteem and harming their futures It must be stopped" nrut stopping what appears I Ur to be such an endemic 1 0fand corrosive problem is UBa problem in itself Australia's most extensive research on the issue a Melbourne-based study published in 1994 called Not a Day Goa By surveyed 1007 gays and lesbians Its key finding was that almost half those under 20 said they had been victimised at school Overseas the figures range higher A small NSW study called Schoolwatch found that two thirds of gay and lesbian students suffered harassment or violence and that more than half either left school as a result or contemplated doing so The studies however show the victims tend to keep the problem secret few people it seemed wanted to help gays Education is held to be the solution Dr Paul van de Ven deputy director of the National Centre in HIV Social Research at Macquarie University has conducted research that shows homophobic attitudes can be changed It is a slow process he says but unlocking the myths about homosexuality can be done That experts talk about undoing the behaviour suggests it is learnt Dr Plummer confirms this and says that the ground is incredibly at inculcating anti-gay beliefs schools were as successful at teaching reading writing and arithmetic we would have a brilliant society" The learning starts very young Dr Plummer said and has its seeds in taunts such as baby" or and escalates towards very clear ideas of what is tough what is appropriate for a boy if he wants to be a man But to stop it the motivations the need to prove you are straight must be stopped and the attitudes unlearnt Derek Williams who is coconvener of the Gay and Lesbian and Association which is assisting in die Tkakalos case said the problem was dearly culturaL Tsakalos was constantly persecuted at school with taunts of like a man" is the street-kid culture a bush culture and an imported American Williams said are meant to be tough The message is pervasive It comes from the sandpit it comes from home and it comes across in violent TV and films Stopping it will be so very hard but you can't stop it until you start trying" kGGOT hit claw-called Mm So alone in his solitary figure on a schoolyard bench Nearby the school heavies milled around kicking a football and amusing themselves with imagined stories of heterosexual conquest No-one knew for sure if the kid was gay but he had fair skin spoke a bit like a girl and was useless at footbalL One of the heavies wheeled from his group and pushed close to the boy ya he asked and dug his finger into the ribs The ritual had begun Like vultures the others taunting at first dancing whether this the form of verbal abuse or escalates to gang bashings and brutalisation Teachers and students alike often do not stop the cycle Effectively he has found a code of silence on the matter no-one will defend a kid who is being harassed for fear of being identified as a gay sympathiser" Dr Plummer said teachers themselves are homophobic and- appear to tacitly approve of gay harassment Others turn a blind eye because they worry about losing respect in the classroom students themselves will not apply any normal discretion even as the harassment progresses from verbal abuse to assault No-one will step in and say that's because the risk is that others will turn on them and accuse them of being a poofter and lock them out of the social networks called a poofter I have found is consistently considered to be the single most offensive term of abuse at school by the children It is the worst title a kid can be landed with and they will go to extreme to avoid lL" research in Australia and more dear evidence overseas are beginning to link homosexual -vilification to youth suicide A US Department of Health study found that up to 30 per cent of youth suicides each year may be due to gay vilification Gay and lesbian youth were up to three times more likely to commit suidde than heterosexual youth Dr David Plummer a medical specialist and researcher at the Australian National University has been studying homo-phobic behaviour in schools for three years He warns of an crisis" a problem that is widespread" and more I believe that homophobic activity is driving youth suicide" he says kind of behaviour we are seeing against kids who may not even be gay just different savage and unrelenting It is more what we might expect of a jail system than the supposed safe haven we expect schools to be for our ltids It is not a safe place for kids who are perceived to be gay School culture is virulently anti-gay" The schoolyard Dr Plummer describes after studying hundreds of cases in 60 schools across four States the ACT and New Zealand is not pretty He has mapped it out as a place that harbours defined zones" and zones" for giy students a place where the ritualised learning of gay hatred begins very young Areas such as the football field or the bike sheds the more remote areas of school are high-risk areas for gay kids The libraxy or areas near the staff- Christopher Tsakalos 14 and hit Vicky first student to sue on vOfication photograph by stefan moore i Gay vilification is debilitating an entire class of children eroding their esteem and harming their futures It must be stopped 7 calling him and boy" and The boy terrified cowered and tried to run Then the physical stuff began A push a slap a punch and as he fell the boots went in Anywhere else this would be criminal assault In the playground it is classed as a mere roughing up fair cop for those boys who fail the masculinity test who are not tough who do not conform to stringent sexual norms of the Australian schoolyard Far from being an isolated case of homosexual vilification the example above drawn from university research appears to be typical and common in the school environment The latest studies show that anti-gay hatred in all school types is entrenched widespread and may be getting worse Even more alarming early Discrimination Board Chris Puplick however has given the department short shrift He says it is morally culpable for failing to make compulsory an education kit designed to educate children about homophobia even though a similar anti-racism kit exists Education Department has to face up to the fact that it has to meet its duty of care towards children in its care" Puplick said is a politically fraught issue Many parents do not want material about gay behaviour taught in the schools Politicians similarly are afraid to sanction it Homo serious of all perhaps he claims that the teachers knowingly let the abuse go on Tsakalos is known to be a difficult child Even so he has tried to commit suicide three times and says this was a plea for help hated it and I know what to do" Christopher said this week gay I know Pm gay and I curt see why that should make me a victim Why should I be treated like The school has to pay for what it has done I want to help stop this happening to other gays" With the case to begin phase one in the Supreme Court next Friday much is a stake For the WITH 14-year-old Christopher Tsakalos this week becoming the first student in Australia to sue for failure to protect him uainst alleged homosexual vilification and vio-lence questions are now being asked about the scope of this problem and who might be responsible The Tsakalos allegations are severe He claims to have been the subject of death threats of gang-bashing by up to 20 students at Cranebrook High in Penrith and of having sassors held to his throat as he was attacked for being gay Most the three schools he has left in two years but it does not accept that it breached its duty of care It also defies the weight of research that says the problem is widespread dawning cases are rare The head of the NSW Anti- first time school liability for the vilification of pupils will be established An avalanche of claims may follow The NSW Department of School Education has acknowledged that Christopher ha4 a problem at Cranebrook and at Let yourself go RDTOflA ITERM DJIFE omsiuniAKiCE panonnscirs TNKUR DAROlSr ARID DfBKUR With NRMA's competitive rates on Term Life Insurance you can look out for your family and save money at the same time Telephone 132 977 or send in the coupon for our brochure and application form ABC INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY MANAGER IT ARCHITECTURE DESIGN STRATEGY DEVELOPMENT ABC 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