Tackling head-on: Bullying, Violence & the Recent Rash of Gay Teen Suicides
- President Obama, Ellen DeGeneres, Glee, Anderson Cooper, Madonna and our own Rick Mercer amongst others - have all been taking to the airwaves to raise awareness, share concerns and their disgust about bullying and the recent rash of gay teen suicides in North America.
- Did you know that:
- In Toronto, the most likely place for a hate crime to occur is in an educational facility?
- 52% of lesbians and 30% of gay youth have attempted suicide?1
- Despite the increased awareness of bullying on LGBT youth, actually 80% of youth bullied and attacked in school identify themselves as straight?2
- "It Gets Better", a YouTube campaign providing positive messages to lesbian and gay youth had over 2 million views in the first two months?
- There is an urgent need to find ways to help stop bullying and violence while providing safe learning environments for all our youth.
- To date there is NO national comprehensive program in our schools to accomplish this nor is there any mandatory teacher training to deal with this issue.
- To help combat these tragic circumstances and make our schools more bullying and violence free, White Knight 2011 is proud to support Egale's Safe School Campaign & The Triangle Program.
1 Eisenberg&Resnick-USA(2006)
2 Egale Canadian School Survey (2009)
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