School Climate Survey Sheds New Light on Experiences of LGBT Students in Wisconsin’s Schools
By: Jason Rasmussen - Posted on: 4/20/2004

The Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network of South Central Wisconsin, in conjunction with the National Day of Silence project, recently announced the release of a new school climate survey profiling the experiences of LBGT youth in Wisconsin. These profiles are derived from the 2003 GLSEN National School Climate Survey. This report marks the first time that these findings have been broken down by state.

The survey reports a direct relationship between in-school victimization, grade-point averages (GPAs) and the college aspirations of LGBT students. At the same time, more than 4 out of 5 lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) students report being verbally, sexually or physically harassed at school because of their sexual orientation.

“This year’s findings clearly demonstrate that despite Wisconsin’s pioneering 1986 non-harassment legislation, violence, bias and harassment of LGBT students continues to be the rule, not the exception, in our schools,” said GLSEN-SCW Executive Director Jason Rasmussen. “This research reveals what must be inherent to so many educators and parents: harassment has a negative impact on LGBT students’ academic performance and college ambitions. To ignore these numbers would be an irresponsible message to all students.”

Key findings include:

• Over half of Wisconsin LGBT youth reported feeling unsafe in school because of their sexual orientation and over a third reported feeling unsafe because of their gender expression.

• Youth from Wisconsin reported more frequent homophobic remarks and more frequent verbal harassment because of their sexual orientation than youth from other states with protective legislation.

• Unchecked harassment correlates with poor performance and diminished aspirations: LGBT youth who report significant harassment are twice as likely to report they do not intend to go to college and their GPAs are significantly lower (2.3 vs. 3.0).

• Despite nondiscrimination laws, harassment continues at unacceptable levels and is too often ignored: 84.3% of LGBT students report being verbally harassed because of their sexual orientation. Nearly a third of students report that faculty never or rarely intervenes when present, despite their legal obligation to do so.

“These numbers are a wake-up call – and a direct challenge – to the 426 school districts in our state, all of which are responsible under state statute for developing effective procedures for preventing this type of harassment,” said Mr. Rasmussen. “Clearly, more work must be done at the state level to document what’s actually happening in the schools and to strengthen the enforcement of our laws.”

This year’s survey includes responses from 108 Wisconsin LGBT middle and high school students. The full report may be obtained by calling GLSEN-SCW at 608-661-4141 or by visiting www.glsenscw.org.

You can also contribute to the understanding of school safety issues for LGBT youth by returning to the main youth page of Diverse and Resilient ("The Buzz"), and clicking on the survey logo in the upper left-hand corner. TAKE IT NOW!