According to a 2001 survey, 65 % of LGBT students reported being physically harassed at school. Unfortunately many school administrators turn a blind eye to the daily harassment that prevents far too many students from getting the education they deserve. Others know that harassment is a problem but think there's nothing they can do to stop it.

You can encourage your school to start addressing the problem by pushing it to adopt an anti-harassment training program. These programs equip schools with the tools they need to recognize harassment and to work towards eliminating it.

Every school should want to prevent anti-LGBT harassment. Numerous studies, media accounts, and court cases have documented that this is a serious, nationwide problem. Harassment deprives students of the basic right to an education.

And it's not just LGBT students who are affected -- it's people who are assumed to be LGBT, the growing number of students who have LGBT people in their families, and all students who deserve to go to school in a safe, secure learning environment.

A number of successful, expensive lawsuits filed by students against schools that ignored harassment make it very clear that protecting students from anti-LGBT harassment is no longer optional for school administrators. In fact, in April 2003 a second federal appeals court ruled that teachers and administrators must take steps to eliminate harassment when they learn that LGBT students are being abused at school.

Conducting anti-harassment training programs for school staff is one critical step schools can take. These programs explain the problem of anti-LGBT harassment and why schools need to address it. But most importantly, training programs offer staff practical strategies for preventing harassment and for responding to it when it occurs.

There are a number of anti-harassment programs offered by local and national LGBT advocacy organizations, including the ACLU's "Making Schools Safe" program. The manual for this program provides the information and materials necessary to put on a training, as well as the tools and ideas you need to get your school to offer it.

"Making Schools Safe" involves three presenters who each offer their perspectives: a teacher who can offer strategies on how to combat harassment in the classroom, a student who can tell his or her own story about the personal cost of harassment, and an attorney who can explain how schools can be held liable for ignoring harassment.

The following materials walk you through all the steps necessary for presenting a training program in your school. After reading these pages, you will want to download a full version of the training manual.