When a transgendered Rockdale teen asked for help, was anybody listening?

[threeplusfire]

(The Austin Chronicle is our major weekly paper)

Why did Ben Brownlee Die?

It makes me so damned angry. The school districts in this state, our current President's home state, are such shit. Not only are our academic standards floundering, violence and abuse are not taken seriously by teachers or administration. Rockdale ISD's refusal to talk to reporters is the same response you would get in Round Rock or Austin, or any of the other communities around the Hill Country that I know.

Adminstration does not listen. They certainly didn't in my case. It wasn't until I was in the hospital and parents were showing up in our classroom that anyone gave a damn that something bad was happening there. It was so much easier to place the blame on me. After all, I was the disturbed kid, so it must be my fault. Easier to threaten to suspend me than to deal with an abusive teacher. Easier to let Jason transfer schools instead of telling the football team not to beat him up. Easier to let the rednecks bash out Casey's windows than tell everyone that it was wrong to treat gay students like pariahs.

There's no goddamned good reason for kids like this to die. If this was a case where a black boy was taunted and humiliated into suicide by the football team, then law enforcement and administration would take it seriously because racial cases have some higher "merit." It's more important because of the PR, the potential publicity. But if the kid involved is gay or transgender, then forget it. That's not such a big deal.

Perhaps the most frustrating thing about this leaden feeling in my head is that it isn't new. This has been going on longer than I've been alive. My older friends certainly know. While we've got Queer Eye for the Straight Guy on television now, have we really come all that far? There's more acceptance in many parts of society now, but basic discrimination rights are still almost neglible in our country. Gay people can not even marry! In many states they are blocked from adopting children and having families. Because people have a moral objection to anal sex? Because gay people are somehow less than human? Because Bible passages can be twisted and Christ's love used as a justification for hate? What the fuck? What is wrong with people?

How many times must this happen before we take this seriously enough to enforce antidiscrimination policies that protect gay and transgender people? How many fucking times? Is it ever going to be enough to make people realize beating up the gay kid is just as bad as beating up the Mexican kid or the autistic kid?

I am so angry, so very angry. One thing I can say with utter certainty is that should I ever have children, there's no way in hell that I would send them to school here. Not ever.

Comments

[alainn-sorcha.livejournal.com]

Definite, definite hategasm.

If I had been a teacher at that school, though, I'd have long ago been fired for smacking the stupid kids. Then going to their house and smacking their parents for raising their children to be bigots.

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

It just kills me that he wrote letters to all his teachers and to the counselors, and that every knew and it didn't make a damn bit of difference. They should be ashamed of themselves.

Re:

[roadnotes.livejournal.com]

That hurt to read. And I wonder about what's going on in the schools my job is helping to create, now.

[alainn-sorcha.livejournal.com]

That should definitely count as criminal negligence.

[a311renegade.livejournal.com]

:-(

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

Exactly.

[feu-de-fripe.livejournal.com]

i am scared that julia is going to go to school here. maybe by the time she starts things will be different? (fat chance but i can hope)
kirk wants to home school her, but while that may be a good idea i think she would miss out on all the rites of passage like changing schools prom home coming. i know they sound silly and i didn't necessarily enjoy all of them but i think it is important for her to have those experiences.. also i don't think that the home school community would be as diverse. in a sense it is a bit like segregation all over again.
just some random thoughts

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

There are a lot of advantages to home schooling, but she would definitely miss out of a lot of the more positive socialization. I would think doing extra stuff with her through elementary school would help a lot, and I'm sure in your home she'll pick up a lot of random knowledge, and by the time she gets a bit older you can decide what kind of schooling would be best. WHo knows, maybe by then a miracle will happen and I'll be president and overhaul the education system.

[feu-de-fripe.livejournal.com]

you are right about random knowledge
and they have this homeschool organization where all the kids hang out and the parents get together etc.

we will see, i still ahve some time to decide.

i can never be president :( i don't think i can even be vice president

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

That's definitely a good thing, homeschool parents bringing their knowledge together and the kids. That could work.

But you could be Secretary of State like Henry Kissinger. I'll never be president if any of those wacky photos from the Czech Republic turn up!