An integrated college in County Down has become the first school in NI to form a Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA).
Gay and straight students at Shimna Integrated College in Newcastle set up the GSA to tackle homophobic bullying, BBC N Ireland reports.
Principal Kevin Lambe said that the group grew out of the college’s need to deal with homophobic bullying head-on.
“It has a similar, but more specific ethos to an integrated school. It says ‘some of us are straight, some are gay, let’s meet together’,” he said.
“Most bullying, most racism has been publicly gotten rid of. Words that you are called because of your religion, because of your skin colour, most of that has disappeared.
“But homophobic bullying I’m sorry to say is quite common. As the form of bullying which most induces young people to harm themselves or even kill themselves, surely we can’t turn away from that and say ‘oh that’s a delicate type of bullying, we can’t really deal with that’.”
Mr Lambe said the school had not received any negative feedback from parents about the initiative.
More at:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-12860858