[Article] Managers and parents reject gay, lesbian school survey

ixoy

From the Irish Independent:

MANAGERS and parents are up in arms over a controversial survey about gay, lesbian and bisexual policies in post-primary schools.

Data from the survey is intended for use in an anti-homophobia project in schools.

But school managers have decided not to co-operate with it pending clarification, while the main Catholic parents group has called it a waste of taxpayers' money.

The Catholic Secondary Parents' Association has posted details on its website, www.cspa.ie - until now the questionnaire was available only to those teachers directly involved in filling it in.

The survey is being carried out by the Mater Dei Institute of Education, on behalf of the gender equality unit of the Department of Education and Science. The purpose is to find out the experiences and policies of schools on bullying, sexuality and HIV/Aids. The teachers are also asked about schools meeting the needs of lesbian, gay and bisexual pupils.

One question asks whether teachers are aware of instances of verbal bullying where terms such as gay, fag, queer, poof, lezzy have been used. They were also asked what might hinder targeting resources to tackling homosexuality-related bullying; disapproval by parents, pupils, other teachers, school trustees, staff inexperience and lack of policy guidelines were listed as possible answers.

The questionnaires were sent by Mater Dei to teachers of Social, Personal and Health Education (SPHE) in March. A recent notice on the website www.schoolingsexualities.ie said copies could not be provided to non-SPHE teachers, pupils or parents until after the survey had been completed.

The website says that prejudice based on sexual orientation is an issue that affects both male and female pupils. It says the aim of the study is to ascertain to what extent schools are willing to address issues such as HIV/Aids education, sexuality education and homophobia. The site also contained very positive responses from some gay pupils and teachers.

But George O'Callaghan, spokesperson for the voluntary school managers said last night that any questionnaire like this should have been sent firstly to school management as it involved the ethos of the schools.

The issue had been discussed last week by the managers and it was felt that some of the questions asked were intrusive and inappropriate. It was decided not to co-operate with it, until the matter and the purpose of the survey was clarified further.

The Irish Independent understands that a number of principals have referred the survey to their boards of management, as it may raise issues in conflict with the schools' ethos.

Meanwhile, the Catholic Secondary School Parents' Association claimed that the survey seemed to suggest that schools should single out certain issues and mention them specifically within school programmes.

"The danger of naming issues in bullying policies is unwise and could leave schools open to litigation, for example, if obesity is not named in the bullying policy and an overweight student is bullied Boards of Management could be in serious trouble," said spokesperson Barbara Johnston.

She said also that the "secretive" nature of this project was also unacceptable as details were not officially available to non-SPHE teachers.

"Nothing should happen in a school that parents are not privy to, especially something that is being funded by the Department of Education and Science," added Ms Johnston.

Interesting to note that Catholic Secondary School Parents' Assocation have called it a waste of money. So tackling issues of abuse and bullying, helping re-educate people is a waste of money? The nerve. No doubt they'd somehow be able to defend the practice of spending money on RE...
Also nice dodge on her part trying to drag in other avenues of bullying. Homosexuality is a far more complex issue and, just because one element of bullying isn't highlighted, it is a weak weak excuse not to examine some of the more pertinent issues.