JCPS grapples with approach to LGBT issues

Max St. John cringes when he hears a gay slur tossed out in the hallways of his school.

"It's disheartening," he said. "It makes you feel less than human."

St. John, who came out as transgender after his freshman year, said many of the teachers at Doss High School have been helpful and understanding. But he still struggles with negative reactions, rude questions and bullying from some of his classmates.

"I don't feel like I'm as much part of the school as anyone else because a lot of students bully or bother other students (for being gay or transgender)," St. John said recently when presenting the idea of starting a Gay-Straight Alliance Club at his school.

He said he hopes the club, which was approved last month by Doss' principal, will usher in a more tolerant culture among students, and will be a symbol that there are places in school where students can turn.

Across the country, issues surrounding lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth have come into increasing focus as more schools recognize that this at-risk population faces higher incidences of bullying, suicide, substance abuse and emotional issues.

In Jefferson County, that recognition has led to the formation this year of a school districtwide committee tasked with addressing the challenges that LGBTQ students may be facing in schools.

"We've got students that are struggling with this. They may be bullied, may be afraid to come out," said Ben Jackey, a spokesman with Jefferson County Public Schools. "We've got to find a way to provide supports around that."

To date, efforts to help LGBTQ students have largely been left up to individual JCPS schools.

"There are various levels of support for GSAs across the district," said Tony Prince, the teacher sponsor of the Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) at Atherton High. He said that, from his experience, school cultures are "extremely varied" in how welcoming they are to gay students.

"There's been really no leadership on this at the district level," Prince said. "It's been left as a school culture issue."

Including Doss' new club, which is actually a Gay-Straight-Transgender Alliance, at least 10 JCPS high schools have GSA clubs or something similar, according to calls to those schools. Another eight do not, while a few refused to answer the question or did not return calls.

Waggener High used to have a GSA, said school counselor Christina Brockman, but said that in recent years there has "not been a growing need or concern for that. Our student body is very open and accepting of each other and of that particular issue." She said the GSA dissolved in recent years "as students were able to effectively take care of their concerns and not feel oppressed or persecuted here at Waggener High School."

Nationwide, about 50 percent of students say their schools have GSAs, according to a study released last month by the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network. It's a percentage that's been growing over the years.

The GLSEN study found that students at schools with GSAs were much less likely to report feeling unsafe because of their sexual orientation — although the percentages still remained high, with 46 percent of LGBT students at schools with GSAs saying they felt unsafe, compared with 64.4 percent of those at schools without GSAs.

"We've known for a long time the victimization LGBT students experience can negatively affect their school experience, their grades, their self-esteem," said Maddy Boesen, a research associate with GLSEN.

Indeed, the GLSEN study showed that LGBT students who experienced harassment or ostracization at school had lower GPAs than their peers. And among LGBT students who planned to drop out before graduation, the most commonly reported reason was because of an unsupportive school environment, the survey found.

Joseph Bargione, lead psychologist with JCPS, said the district decided to create the LGBT work group after hearing from several school counselors that they needed additional resources to appropriately support these students.

Bargione, who is one of the leaders of the committee, said the group has only had four meetings so far, but has been working on providing professional development so staff members can help reach out to LGBT students who may be struggling.

He said they are looking at creating "safe zones" in schools by training specific teachers or staff members on how to deal with LGBT-specific issues. After receiving the training, those teachers would put up a "safe zone" sticker in their window so "students would know that person is a safe person to talk to about these kinds of issues," Bargione said.

Jackey said adding a sticker to a classroom may not seem like a big deal, but said the point is that JCPS is trying to develop "areas of trust" so LGBT students feel they have a place of safety in their schools.

Jackey said the point is not to single out LGBT students, but to help every student. He said that now that JCPS has learned more about the particular needs of this group, "we're trying to provide supports."

Brian Buford, assistant provost for diversity at the University of Louisville and the director of the university's LGBT Center, deals with gay and lesbian students who have had many different experiences in their middle schools and high schools.

He said students who have GSAs and other specific supports at their schools tend to come to college with "a very different reality than those who didn't have those resources," he said. He said students who had GSAs are often "further along in their journey. They may have already begun to be comfortable identifying themselves as LGBT."

Buford said that, as more LGBT students come out in middle and high school, they are increasingly looking for colleges with supportive environments. He said that, for the first time this spring, the University of Louisville will host a spring campus visit day specifically geared toward LGBT students.

"For years, U of L has done campus visits for Hispanic students, for students of color," Buford said. "Now we're looking through the perspective of an LGBT student and saying, 'What is it you might be looking for."

Students seemed at first hesitant, then full of questions and stories during Doss' first GSA meeting last month. One boy talked about struggling with his Baptist family's disapproval of gays and his own feelings after knowing friends who are gay. Another talked about hearing stereotypes that didn't fit her. A third shared that her sister had come out as a lesbian.

St. John helped set ground rules for the club, wearing a rainbow-colored bracelet on his left wrist and his school class ring on his right hand.

It's a ring he wears a little more proudly now.

"I feel like I have hope in the school to become friendlier," St. John said. He added that "students now know where to go if they have problems over sexuality or gender identity."

Reporter Allison Ross can be reached at (502) 582-4241. Follow her on Twitter at @allisonSross.