What You Need To Know About The Safe Schools Program

There’s been a lot of nonsense going around about the Safe Schools program of late, and we think that it’s time to clear it up.

Tony Abbott has been making headlines again recently talking about why he believes the Safe Schools program should not be supported by the current government in any funding capacity. This might seem strange, because it was Tony Abbott’s government was the one that launched it in the first place. But apparently, he’s really changed his mind because he’s now claiming that the program is not an anti-bullying program at all, but it’s actually social engineering.

Although we personally don’t think Tony Abbott is worth listening to for love or money, some people, particularly parents, aren’t in the same boat as us. They’ve been listening to Good ol’ Tony, and as a result, there’s been a lot of misinformation going around about just what the purpose of the Safe Schools program is, and just why it’s so important.

So allow us to clear it up. Here’s what you actually need to know about the Safe Schools Program.

What Is The Safe Schools Program?

Let’s take a moment to break the Safe Schools program down to it’s basics, getting back to the foundation of the program beyond all the comments and incorrect assumptions that have been flying around in the media.

We’ve taken this quote directly off the Safe Schools website:

“Safe Schools Coalition Australia is a national coalition of organisations and schools working together to create safe and inclusive school environments for same sex attracted, intersex and gender diverse students, staff and families.”

Within that coalition, there are resources that will be used to educate and inform kids about the realities of an inclusive and accepting community. One of those resources is called All of Us. Chris Bush, one of the authors of the resource, describes it flawlessly in his article protesting the possible funding cuts to the program:

“All of Us is a health and physical education resource for understanding gender diversity, sexual diversity and intersex topics for Years 7 and 8…”

What Are The Program’s Aims?

There doesn’t seem to be much room to take Safe Schools and the All of Us resource out of context here, but clearly, people are still doing that. So we wanted to make clear the aims of the program, in combat to the individuals out there who are claiming the program will somehow socially engineer your children. The program has three aims:

1. To increase respect and inclusion of LGBTI people by challenging stereotypes and increasing empathy through the exploration of relatable stories.
2. To reduce homophobic and transphobic behaviour and discrimination in both schools and the wider community by increasing understanding about the impacts of those actions of the health and wellbeing of those targeted.
3. To provide practical strategies and skills to help students create a school environment that recognises and celebrates and diversity of each person’s status when it comes to gender identity, sexuality and more.

Why Is It Necessary?

Tony Abbott, and the always outspoken Australian Christian Lobby’s Lyle Shelton, believe that the Safe Schools program isn’t only unnecessary, it’s inappropriate. We would suggest that before they go about making these wild claims that they take some time to properly read both the resource, and the statistics that prove the program is not only a good idea, but vital to the health and well being of LGBTI young people in Australia.

To be quite honest, the statistics are shocking. Did you know that 80% of the abuse that LGBTI people experience occurs in schools? Or that people in the LGBTI community are six times more likely to commit suicide than their peers?

The people behind Safe Schools know these statistics, and they’re desperate to change them. In fact, three hundred and sixty academics signed an open letter to the prime minister supporting the project, along with Australia’s two biggest mental health organisations, Beyond Blue and Headspace. But for some reason, too many people out there think that there’s something wrong with fighting back against homophobia and transphobia, and making a dedicated attempt to reduce the LGBTI youth suicide rate.

Why?

Well maybe it’s because they don’t really understand the program.

What Is It Not Trying To Do?

Safe Schools and the All of Us resource is not being forced onto schools by some kind of controlling government. Signing up to the program is entirely voluntary, and almost 500 schools have signed up, likely after seeing the challenges that their own LGBTI students face day-to-day. The schools support the program, because they can see the benefits to their students, and to their community.

It’s also incredibly important to understand that the Safe Schools program is not trying to ‘turn’ your child gay, or change their gender identity. We know this because the evidence overwhelmingly suggests that a person’s gender identity or sexuality is not decided by lifestyle factors, but rather by biological factors. In the same way that people have tried for years to ‘get the gay’ out of people through torturous faith-based programs and failed, so too is it impossible to ‘turn’ someone to a gay lifestyle. They’re not werewolves, people, so let’s leave that assumption in the dirt where it belongs.

At the end of the day, the Safe Schools program is a great idea that will see LGBTI students better protected and included in their schooling lives, which in turn lowers youth suicide rates and teaches all of our kids to be more inclusive, accepting and understanding.

What’s bad about that?

*Featured image from dailylife.com.au