Thu 31 Mar 2016 In: New Zealand Daily News View at Wayback View at NDHA
National LGBTI youth organisation InsideOUT have released a new resource for schools today, coinciding with International Day of Transgender Visibility. The resource, ‘Making Schools Safer for Trans and Gender Diverse Students’ provides information for principals, teachers, staff, parents, board of trustees and counselors at secondary schools around the country. Created in collaboration with trans and gender diverse students in New Zealand, InsideOUT were able to identify what would or had make these students feel supported at school and worked to provide the best information in this resource. “An increasing number of young people in New Zealand are coming out as trans while they are at school,” says Tabby Besley, National Coordinator of InsideOUT. “Schools have an obligation to provide a safe environment for all of their students, but many don’t know where to start when it comes to providing support for a trans young person. “This resource aims to walk schools through that process, raising all of the things they might need to think about in order to provide a safe and inclusive environment for trans and gender diverse students. From dealing with bullying to bathrooms and uniforms, to school camps and roll calls, the resource provides best practice solutions in all areas.” Besley says InsideOUT hopes this resource will create visibility for trans and gender diverse young people and their right to safety at school. “We know from the Youth’12 study by the University of Auckland that 4 out of every 100 young people in NZ identify as trans or questioning their gender, and over half of them are afraid of being hurt or bullied at school. Our resource gives schools the tools to be able to support these students the best that they can.” In 2015 the Ministry of Education released updated Sexuality Education Guidelines, recommending that all schools provide gender neutral uniforms and toilets, ensure inclusive sports procedures, have health programmes that affirm sexuality and gender diversity and educate against and respond to incidents of bullying in relation to sexuality and gender diversity. “These guidelines align with our suggestions in this resource and we believe it is vital to uphold them in order to create safer schools for trans and gender diverse youth,” says Besley. Thanks to a successful crowdfunding campaign, every secondary school across the country will be sent two hard copies of the resource to use. It is available for anyone to view and download for free online here. InsideOUT would like to extend a huge thanks to the generous people who have donated to help get the resource out to schools. If you would like to support transgender day of visibility and contribute to see it spread further, you can donate here.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Thursday, 31st March 2016 - 1:35pm