Today we saw a presentation from Jamie Nabozny. Jamie was throughout his Middle School and High School years, verbally and physically bullied for being gay. Jamie won a landmark federal lawsuit against his school administrators for failing to stop the harassment. Now he speaks out for the millions of kids bullied in our schools everyday, and today he shared his story with us to make sure what happened to him is never repeated. If you ever get the chance to have Jamie present, do it.
One of the most powerful parts of the presentation is when he asks kids: “Within the last week, did you hear the word ‘gay’ in school: like that’s so gay”, or “stupid“, or “that’s retarded”. How many of us say those very words without meaning them to be hurtful. After all the English language has so many other words to use, why do we chose those words?!
Jamie also has a movie, that you can get for free from Teaching Tolerance, if you can’t get him to your school. It delivers the same powerful message.
I can’t wait to talk to my kids in Lunch Bunch as we talk about Kindness and how we can change the way we think of school. How can school become a safer place for everyone? How can we change how people treat each other? How can we be the starfish throwers (previous post)? How are we going to make a difference?
How will you make a difference? Let me know. Leave a comment. I challenge each person who reads this post to do so.
