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How do governments around the world deal with LGBTI bullying in schools?

How do governments around the world deal with LGBTI bullying in schools?

Posted by Alan Hau on 22nd Mar 2018

Recently got involved with a task force to address LGBTI bullying in schools. The meeting took place at Amnesty International's office in Hong Kong. We looked at how bullying is addressed around the world and compared to how Hong Kong does it:

China

  • Came out with a report that says over 60% of the kids identify themselves as non-straight <-- wow, I'm going to have to take everything with a hint of salt.
  • Everyone is progressive and happy

Japan

  • A student got bullied to death a couple years ago and the government pushed through legislation
  • 60% of the teachers think LGBT related topics should be taught in schools
  • The teachers know it's an important topic but feel that resources are lacking to teach it right
  • Educators can empathize with the difficulties as a member of a sexual minority

Denmark and Belgium:

  • Not many laws are written but they have specific anti bullying program targeting kids in kindergarten
  • It's all about prevention at the earliest possible age, not punishing people when damage is already done

Hong Kong:

  • Highest per capita school bullying reported incidences in the world
  • Bureaucratic system where a checklist / flowchart exists for every scenario
  • Teachers are flooded with red tape and work to report to authority
  • Zero tolerance policy so the bully is either expelled or punished right away

If the victimizer does not learn anything and the teachers don't have the time, then the bullies grow up lacking the ability to empathize. That just encourages people to take anything by force as long as they understand the consequences. We had an actual school teacher at the meeting and at least he was honest about the problems. Kind of like Japan, unless someone got seriously hurt, it sounds like no local politicians are interested in legislation :(