Schools should focus on anti-bullying policies to protect homosexual students

Editor,

I read the sad news that another gay teenager killed himself.
Fourteen-year-old Brandon Bitner ended his life Nov. 9 by walking into the path of a speeding tractor-trailer when he could no longer deal with the taunting he received from his peers at Midd-West High School in Middleburg, Penn. Gay teens suffer suicide rates three times that of their straight peers.

Judging just by what I read in the Daily Lobo and comments posted online to Daily Lobo stories, some of you reading will feel sadness and sympathy while others will feel glee.

A few days ago, before Bitner killed himself, I read an opinion piece written by APS Superintendent Winston Brooks in response to the six teens who were goaded into committing suicide by words of hate — mostly from their peers.

I applaud Brooks, other education leaders and lawmakers across the nation for creating zero-tolerance, school-based, anti-bullying policies and laws. I know they mean well and have the best interest of our youth at heart, but anti-bullying strategies at schools are but a Band-Aid on a problem that is more deeply rooted and widespread than schools: Intolerance and hate is taught at every turn.

I need go no further than the Nov. 9 Daily Lobo front page. Above the fold, the headline said: “Demonstrators condemn homosexuality, Islam.”
According to the article, a “visiting Christian group” spent some time on the north side of the SUB spewing hate and intolerance. The article quotes group member Kent Fleck as saying, “We are not here to be effective; we are here to be biblical.”

What Fleck meant was that he’s not responsible for the actions of others after he’s filled them with hate for homosexuals and Muslims because he’s only preaching what he believes the Bible says, not asking anyone to commit a crime.
Does this argument sound familiar to anyone?
It’s the same argument given by anti-abortion groups who publish wanted posters of doctors who perform abortions. Those posters include the doctors’ photographs and home addresses, but those groups claim no responsibility when those doctors are murdered by the groups’ followers.
It’s the same with these so-called Christian groups that preach hate.

They may not have pushed Bitner into the speeding truck, but with their hate speech they certainly lay the groundwork for others to feel no guilt when making the lives of people like Bitner so painful that they feel they have to take their lives and end the pain.

If you feel saddened by Bitner and the six other gay teens’ stories, please do your part to spread tolerance. Please be understanding of people whose sexual orientation is not the same as yours, and please don’t allow others to use pejoratives.

If you are glad to hear that another queer is dead and feel hatred toward homosexuals, Muslims or others, please find help. Your poisonous way of thinking is getting innocent people killed.

Danny Hernandez
Graduate student