qathet Pride is sharing this study from 2020/2021.
Capstone presentation created by Jordana Pangburn, a grade 12 student at Brooks Secondary School, with the guidance of Allison Burt, Jonathan Dyck and Willow Dunlop.
22 questions offered to all 776 students, with 420 responding:
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- 54% of Brooks students in grades 8-12 responded
- In a class of 30 students 6.6 identify as LGBTQ2S+
- 22% Do identify as LGBTQ2S+ (plus 11% unsure)
- 39.5% Describe their sexual orientation as other than heterosexual
- 16% Describe their gender as other than Cisgender
- When it came to Pronouns, 44.3% She/her/hers, 38.9% He/Him/his, 8% They/them/theirs, 5.2% Other, 3.7% Unsure.
- Pronouns do not always correspond with gender identity
- While 50% of LGBTQ2S+ and unsure students were comfortable being out at school, over 50% were uncomfortable discussing LGBTQ2S+ content is class or other students, more were comfortable discussing with teachers.
- 50% of students witnessed homophobia slurs at Brooks two or more times a week, and over 25% witnessed hurtful language daily. And almost 20% witnessed physical bullying twice a month or more. Interestingly non-LGBTQ2S+ students observations measured almost identically.
- Where students say homophobic behaviour comes from : 40.7% report homophobic behaviour from staff, and 97% report homophobic behaviour from students.
- 20.5% students report that staff never intervene. And 29.3% say staff are sometimes homophobic when they do, so over 50% don’t bother reporting homophobic behaviour.
- 33.8% say interventions were not at all effective.
- 69% of students report that NO LGBTQ2S+ content was covered in the past school year, 3% report being portrayed negatively and 28% report being portrayed positively
- 35.5% of LGBTQ2S+ students completely disagree that they are satisfied with sexual health education.
- Thank you to Jordana and team for presenting the finding and recommendations to Brook, Mayor and Council.
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How are your youth doing in school and after school… are you supportive and aware ?