February
27, 2012
Nashville,
TN—On February 22, Cheatham County residents delivered three anti-bullying
proposals for consideration by the Cheatham County Board of Education at their
March meeting. The proposals resulted
from ongoing discussions of bullying by
Cheatham County residents and youth and equality advocates from Nashville after
Cheatham County Central High School senior Jacob Rogers took his life in
December. Family and friends say that
Rogers was bullied at school for being gay.
Two
of the proposals acknowledge steps taken by Cheatham County Schools to address
bullying such as a revision of the district’s anti-bullying policy that took
place in November and efforts to provide teacher trainings. In the first proposal, Jeremy Rogers of
Ashland City recommends that Cheatham County Schools provide a monthly report to
the public that would document the number of bullying cases per school and how
they were resolved. In the second
proposal, Mary Ann Bernicky of Pegram requests that copies of the curriculum
used to train teachers on bullying issues be made available for public
inspection and that the district provide information on how many teachers have
been trained as well as reveal any plans for ongoing certification of school
personnel.
The
third proposal offered by Kaelynn Malugin of Ashland City suggests a revision
of the district’s anti-bullying and anti-harassment policies to include the
categories “gender expression, gender identity, and sexual orientation” in
their enumerated classes to improve protections for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and
transgender students or those who are perceived to be gay, lesbian, bisexual,
or transgender.
The
Tennessee Equality Project provided assistance in drafting the proposals and
advice in navigating the Cheatham County
Board of Education’s policy process.
The
next meeting of the Cheatham County Board of Education is March 5.
Contact: Chris Sanders
(615)
390-5252
chris@tnequalityproject.com
#####
No comments:
Post a Comment