Criticism has been mounting against the WA Department of Education over the lack of LGBT support available to students in schools.
When the WA State Government passed LGBT law reforms in 2002, the amended legislation ensured educational authorities could not limit student access to benefits provided by the school.
The leading voice on the issue is a group called B-LeGITS, a collective of school teachers and union members concerned with homophobia in schools.
B-LeGITS spokesperson Clive Kelly said LGBT students weren’t acknowledged in schools; there was no specific policy or curriculum mention for gay and gender diverse students.
‘There is nothing explicit saying ‘homophobic bullying is not on,’ Kelly said.
‘You can’t talk about gay and lesbian bullying in WA schools.’
OUTinPerth made a request to the state education department for an estimate on how many resources were available to LGBT students; no response was given.
In 2003/04, the State School Teachers’ Union of WA pushed for the education department to combat homophobia with direct policy. Kelly said the plan lost momentum for a few years until the department moved on the current diversity policy, the 2007-10 Equity & Diversity Management Plan. However, the policy was not published till 2009 and will only run untill the end of this year.
He said there was no future Equity & Diversity plan in the pipeline.
There is also no state-wide policy specifically addressing homophobia in schools while any LGBT resources can only be made available at the discretion of the school prinicpal.
Over East, the Victorian State Government recently allocated $80,000 to roll out a new Safe Schools Coalition made up of 11 schools. The project was launched last month offering training, resources and practical support on gender and sexual diversity.
Youth Affairs Council of WA executive officer Craig Comrie said there just wasn’t enough information available in WA schools.
‘Young people have to access the information from other service providers outside of their educational institutions,’ Comrie said.
‘Young people spend the majority of their time in school so it’s really important that they have the information they need to deal with their problems available in schools… it would be good to see WA schools providing more direct information to LGBT young people.’
Lisa Thirer from Fremantle Headspace said institutions should encourage diversity at a student level with LGBT resources in schools.
‘You have to start from the bottom up with (schools), you need to have students involved in delivering it and making it something they understand and value.
‘If it’s just coming from the administrators and not embraced by young people, it’s not really going to achieve anything.’
Politically, the issue had received little attention in WA except by Greens MLC Alison Xamon who revisited it in June this year.
She told the Legislative Council the current system was ‘wholly inadequate’ in addressing homophobia in schools since no state-wide programs in the state existed.
‘I’m afraid a lack of state-wide efforts to address these fundamental issues will make an improvement highly unlikely,’ Xamon said.
‘I will demand that our state education system show some courage to address what I think is a very real human rights issue for our youth.’
In response, WA’s Education Minister Liz Constable said it was important that students, teachers and staff are treated fairly regardless of their gender or sexuality.
‘Education on these issues and the curriculum and education resources used to support these lessons must be age-appropriate, delivered by trained teachers, and within a supportive school community and policy environment inclusive of parents.’
The Department of Education insist they have support available with behaviour management policies for teachers on bullying and school psychologists for support.
But when OUTinPerth asked Clive Kelly from B-LeGITS how far WA schools had progressed since the 2001 reforms, he simply replied, ‘we haven’t’.
Benn Dorrington
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