A matter of life and death

Day after day, he bravely walked the gauntlet of taunts, threats and physical attacks. And day after day, things got worse. In a science classroom, one day,  two students held Jamie Nabozny on the ground and pretended to rape him. As other students looked on, the assailants told their victim that he should enjoy what they were doing to him.

In the principal’s office, that afternoon, Nabozny begged for protection against the bullies.

"Boys will be boys,” the principal said. “If you're going to be so openly gay, you have to expect that kind of stuff."

After suffering through years of additional abuse — including one attack resulting in hospitalization for internal bleeding — without recourse, Nabozny decided to drop out of school.

A few years later, Nabozny won a landmark civil rights suit against Wisconsin’s Ashland Public School District which, a judge agreed, had failed to protect him against physical and psychological harm. 

That was 20 years ago. But now, in the wake of several high-profile suicides by gay teens, we are learning that little has changed for students like Nabozny.

In its most recent annual survey, the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network found that nearly 9 of 10 lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered students experienced some form of harassment at school in the past year. Nearly two-thirds said they felt unsafe because of their sexual orientation.

As we’re learning, that’s a recipe for the sort of depression and despondency that leads many to contemplate, and some to attempt, suicide. But those same factors contribute to another self-destructive action — one that is affecting thousands upon thousands of students every year.

Twenty-eight percent of gay students will drop out of school — about three times the rate of their heterosexual peers, according to Mental Health America and the National Center for Education Statistics. Through no fault of their own, many of these students are being relegated to lives of greater poverty, joblessness and homelessness as they try to make their way in a world in which a high school diploma is the absolute minimal standard for basic employment. 

It’s extremely tragic that it has taken the deaths of so many amazing, talented and promising young Americans to refocus our nation’s attention on the problems gay youth face in school. But if we only address the suicide issue, we would be failing these students once again.

A comprehensive and compassionate response to this problem should include a guarantee that all students are provided the safe and secure environment that is necessary to attend and complete school. At the legal level, of course, that is the least we can do.

But at a very human level, there is one more thing we need to do: We should reach out to those students who have already been pushed out of school. We should give them the resources they need to complete their educations. We should promise them that we will do everything in our power not to fail other students in the same way.

And we should act like their lives depend on it — because they do.

Gregg Rosann and Rebekah Richards are co-founders of The American Academy, which partners with school districts nationwide to re-enroll dropouts in school. For more information about The Academy and its programs, visit www.NoDropouts.com.