Analysis Of Making Schools Safe For All Students By Charlotte J. Patterson

Charlotte J. Patterson’s article Making Schools Safe for All Students: Patterson’s article mainly dealt with the issues many LGBT youths have to go through on a day-to-day basis and how we as educators can make schools safer for not only the LGBT youths, but also for all students. Although I am not LGBT, I know many people who are and I can feel for them. I understand that this an ongoing issue that will eventually affect my classroom when I am a teacher. When I was in high school a few years ago, I remember having a friend who was gay, and at the time, and probably even now, our school did not really give support to the students who knew that they were LGBT or even the few that were questioning their sexuality. We did not live in the most progressive town, so he had to navigate that all alone. I feel as a future educator, even though our students’

By default, whatever our students are going through will affect the classroom whether we want it to or not. It is important to have that support system there in case a student needs it. The article also mentions that a study conducted provides evidence of LGBT students who participate in GSAs are better off than those who do not participate in them. The article goes on to say that participating in GSAs brings feelings of belongingness and higher grades in school (Patterson, 2013, pg. 194). It is clear to me that having a GSA is an ideal situation in any school. Maybe if students were more educated on LGBT history and the struggles LGBT people had to go through to get where they are, there would be less bullying. I know personally if there were some sort of support system in place for LGBT students at my high school, many people would have been better equipped to deal with life after high school. When I am a teacher, I will certainly help my students with this if the need arises. I would rather