Some thoughts on the Larry King case

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The Newsweek article on Larry King, coupled with the failure to pass a bullying bill in NC, have made me think a bit about gay students. One big thing to remember is that teachers are people, inherently flawed, and with all the prejudices that people have. We tend to represent the communities we teach in when you are dealing with small town or suburban schools. In a place with budget problems your teachers are going to tend to be older due to layoffs and an inability to hire new teachers. Oxnard probably was like this. Blue collar and in California they likely have been underfunded for years.

Now for the problem. Teachers don't get great training about sexual harassment. Students definately don't get training about sexual harassment. I have worked, as a sub and a regular teacher, in a variety of districts for about 18 years. I have never had any training about gay students. I have never very limited training about sexual harassment (only at my current district). I have, on my own, gone to a couple of bullying workshops. Imagine if your workplace acted this way. We shouldn't be surprised that some amount of mayhem happens under this senario. The fact is that openly gay students are a relatively new phenomenum. Openly transgender ones, newer still. If a teacher is a straight, small town person, he or she is likely to not know that many, if any, openly gay or transgender people. We can seem like aliens to them.

California has a great law on the books to protect those like Larry, but apparently they don't do much training for their teachers. It is impossible to imagine any major corporation accepting that state of affairs. It is human nature for some people to reactly badly toward difference. It takes training to overcome that. It also takes willingness. Both appeared to be in short supply.

Openly gay teachers can help in that teachers can get to know gays through collegues. But without the same type of training that corporations give their employees we can't expect either teachers or students to buy in. The informal system GSA's running events to sensitize select students only works with the easiest to reach students and virtualy no teachers. The informal system of openly gay teachers or semi closeted ones working behind the scenes or even publicly to educate their friends on the faculty also only works with the more motivated teachers.

If we are going to encourage students to be openly gay and transexual at young ages, and I think that is a good thing, then we must train both teachers and students to respect different people. We just can't assume that things will work out because the kids tell us they are OK. Gay teachers can't be the fount of all wisdom in all things gay to our collegues.

In the final analysis the adults in that school messed up and both Larry and Brandon paid the price. That doesn't excuse Brandon's crime, nor place any blame for it upon Larry, but the esculating war between those students should have been diffused before the shooting occured. Would have a better trained faculty helped? It surely wouldn't have hurt.