Background on the Safe Schools Program
Discuss About The Associations With Psychological Distress Suicidality.
The SSCA, Safe Schools Coalition Australia refers to a national network that encompasses several organizations, which work with a range of school communities. The primary objective of this national framework is to build safer and better inclusive environments for intersex, homosexual and gender diverse students, families and staff. ?In 2010, the Victorian Government established The Safe Schools program was established by the Victorian Government in 2010, with the aim of ensuring safer places for all students, regardless of their orientation, race or ethnicity (Australia S.S.C 2017). management, the Safe Schools program focused on providing protection to all students, such as, gay, lesbian, transgender, bisexual, and students belonging to the intersex or LGBTI community. The SSCA functioned in the form of an organization group before November 2017, the main focus of which was on the people belonging to the LGBTIQ community.
This program was developed and formulated out of the need that identified the importance of providing support to the LGBTI students. These students had been recognized to have greater risks for suicide and bullying. This called for the need of ensuring an inclusive and safe environment in schools (Safe School Coalition AUS 2018). One major aspect of this program involves creating provisions for providing professional training and development for secondary and high school teachers to facilitate them gain a sound expertise of the ways by which LGBTI students can be supported. The essay will illustrate the role of policies and rules implemented by the government in forming a just society for the youth, in context of the Safe School programs.
The term just society covers a plethora of perspectives that allows all residents of the society to live in it, as long as there is no infringement on other’s rights. The resources of a just society are equally distributed to all, which includes their initial distribution to the most deserving members. Social policies have always been formulated with the aim of improving the wellbeing of the community members, and these policies are especially concerned with welfare of people who belong to the disadvantaged and vulnerable population in a society. Change in social policy has been found to dramatically affect the choices and lives of millions of Australians, over time. Most essential social policies in the context of Australian population include the Medibank and Medicare policies of 1970s, and the National Disability Insurance Scheme, 2013 (Bessant et al. 2006).
Role of Social Policies as Foundations for a Just Society
The Safe School policy is one such essential policy that makes it necessary for all Australian schools to provide a safe environment that will help students to grow learn and develop. Implementation of this policy by the government elaborates on the fact that school safety for all students, regardless of their background, is an integral prerequisite for their academic achievement and success, which in turn will lead to a betterment of the society. These policies have often been identified as financial and administrative arrangements that are organised in a way, which assists several institutions and services to accomplish the intentions and objectives (Considine 1997). Social policies have also been considered as essential outcomes such as, the extent of these policies, and how the different groups of students are treated, based on their background that affects the overall quality of their life and development (Bessant 2008).
The social policies are frequently represented in the form of statements, rather than getting encapsulated in one statement, and applied to broad areas, such as, the Safe School framework. Inclusive and safe schools have been identified to exert a range of benefits to all students and help each student to reach their maximum potential. Several international research studies emphasize on the fact that a positive school environment results in improved academic achievements (Block et al. 2014). Safe School environment have also been found to increase confidence among all students, and brings about better attendance rate at school. Statistical reports indicate that the diverse nature of sexual orientation, gender identity, and sex often accounts for more than 11% of the entire Australian population. There is mounting evidence regarding the mistreatment that is faced by LGBTI students in Australia. Such students have often been found to get subjected to pervasive discrimination that includes bullying, intimidation, harassment and violence (Woodford et al., 2014).
Initially they were also deprived of equal educational opportunities at all institutions, which led to a failure in accepting them as a part of the nation. Several research studies have demonstrated that discrimination faced by the students at schools frequently contributed to high rates of dropout, absenteeism, poor academic achievements and adverse health consequences. A close association has been established between such discrimination faced by LGBTI students and suicidal ideations among them. LGBTI youth aged 16 to 27 years manifest 5 times increased likelihood of suicidal ideations, which can be attributed to the harassment and abuse they face on a regular basis (Skerrett, Kõlves and De Leo 2015). A suicidal tendency of nearly 11 times has also been observed among the transgender students, aged above 18 years (Dessel, Goodman and Woodford 2017). The discrimination faced by such students often results in social withdrawal and isolation that makes it difficult for them to stay in the hostile school environment. This results in the onset of a range of psychological and physical problems.
Creating Safe and Inclusive Environments for All Students
The third National study conducted on the health and well-being of the youth who represented LGBTI community, suggested that as much as 61% of the young people had reported experiences of verbal homophobic abuse. Physical homophobic abuse and rumours that finally let to exclusion were reported by 18% and 69% youth, respectively (Lea, de Wit and Reynolds 2014). This formed the foundation of enforcement of social policy that focused on building safe schools for the students. This SSCA framework allows all educational institutions to select from a range of age-appropriate and evidence based information, professional learning and other resources that provide assistance to respond to, and prevent all forms of discrimination and bullying of the youth, based on their gender identity, sexual orientation and the intersex attraction status (Dwyer 2014). The social policy makes it imperative to take into consideration views of the entire school community that also includes student representative groups and parents, during the process of determining best approaches that can be implemented in schools to realise the commitment of creating a safe school.
The social policies implemented by the government with the aim of providing a just society for the youth, are always not articulated in the fashion of a formal statement. Deliberate informality is maintained for circumventing the requirements of the formal policy. Formulation of the policy that focuses on safe schools was further facilitated by an understanding of the youth needs and informed about it to the government agencies (Woodman and Wyn 2013). The youth were identified as an important population group that holds distinct role in the community. This was followed by identification of areas of interest that needed appropriate government consideration. This research was built on existing evidences that helped in developing a consistent and comprehensive youth, regarding the way by which the youth were fairing in different areas that is of interest to the Australian government (Keuroghlian, Shtasel and Bassuk 2014).
This in turn helped in establishment of a descriptive and credible picture about all young people, living in the nation. This led to enforcement of the SSCA coalition that provided support to all schools and teachers, who had repeatedly tried to seek assistance, with the aim of creating an inclusive environment for all of their LGBTI students and their families. This coalition program began in the year 2010, in all Victorian schools and gradually gained support from all over the nation, by 2013 (The Foundation for Young Australians 2018). It encouraged all schools to implement resources that were provided by the Australian government. As much as 500 schools were listed as members of the SSCA that was followed by visit to several schools by network partners, for introductory meetings with the school staff (Australia 2017). The meetings and staff sessions celebrated on the needs of intersex, same sex attracted and gender diverse students. Effective implementation of the social policy found an enormously high proportion of schools (90%) participating in the program (Jones 2017).
The Impact of Discrimination on LGBTI Students’ Well-being
The primary aim of the social policy was to reduce all kinds of trans-phobic and homophobic behaviour, and prejudice against the intersex youth studying in the schools. Moreover, the social policy also aimed to increase support for gender diverse, intersex and same sex attracted school staff, students and families. Realisation of these objectives included building capacity of the entire school communities, sharing good practices, and increasing the national awareness on the issue of interest. The activities that are involved in a social policy always help to gain a deeper understanding of the impact that these policies are likely to create on the lives of people and the nature of the society. Hence, implementation and study of social policies are ultimately concerned with gaining an insight on the immediate effects that it will create on the well being of the entire society (Loughhead et al. 2018). Over the years, enforcement of social policies in Australia have been driven by the belief that society can be changed in a purposeful and planned manner, which will bring about an improvement of the welfare of community members by using appropriate research and knowledge. This led to a progressive development in pursuit of social wellbeing. Australian social policies have long been found to get influenced by those of the United Kingdom that relies on Fabianism traditions of commitment, related to social reforms (Alcock 2014).
This led to the establishment of a collaborative work with the government, key stakeholders and the school communities that built on the capacity of students, for leading and contributing towards a positive change in their schools that would reduce transphobic and homophobic behaviour, towards the LGBTI youth (Cooper et al. 2014). This effective collaboration also emphasized on the importance of actively including students, staff, and families who belong to the LGBTI community. Building and sharing good practice within schools, for program delivery was another essential approach that facilitated creating more inclusive and safer Australian schools, for the vulnerable population (Kosciw et al. 2013). This also identified the need of bringing about a positive change across all schools, for improving the experiences and lives of the disadvantaged people.
The aforementioned objectives were accomplished by appropriate dissemination of the ‘All of US’ unit guide that acted as an evidence-based classroom resource, which was written by curriculum expert, teachers and the members of SSCA team. The guide aimed to establish a safe learning environment, in classrooms and recommended the range of activities that helped enhancing respect, for the thoughts and feelings of other individuals (The Foundation for Young Australians 2018). It was consistent with the aims of the policy. The policy also focused on utilisation of the Australian Curriculum content description ACPPS079 that allowed the class members to imagine themselves in place of others, and explore their experiences. The policies also utilise the essential concept of heteronormativity that relies on the belief that all individuals fall into comprehensive and distinct genders, with natural roles in their life (Goodrich et al. 2013). This helps the students to demonstrate respect towards their LGBTI friends.
The Third National Study and Safe Schools Program Enforcement
The policy program was taken over by the education department in Victoria in 2016, following which more support was gained from the government (Schefman and Standard Leader 2016). Effectiveness of the policy can be established by the fact that a research conducted on the performance of students within the program, compared to their counterparts indicated that the LGBTI students enrolled in safe schools did better (Australian Education Union 2016). High reduction in discrimination and bullying towards gender diverse, and same sex attracted students were also reported by several school principals (Carpenter 2016). Furthermore, testimony from the students also explained the effectiveness of the program, in improving the learning environment (Medhora 2016). Reports were also found that suggested a reduction in prevalence of trans-phobic and homophobic language at schools, following enforcement of the social policy concerned with SSCA coalition (Tomazin 2016).
Thus, it can be stated that the program has received support by majority of the state governments and educational institutions, in addition to psychologists, religious organisations and other non-governmental organisations. The content presented in the guidelines of the policies were consistent with the objectives of the program, and presented in a suitable language that facilitated members of all schools to utilise them, for preventing discrimination against the vulnerable youth. Hence, this social policy was able to effectively create an inclusive and safe school environment for all students, staff and families.
References
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