"Can I swear for emphasis?"

"No ******* way am I gonna let this happen."*

This is what RN told the Dean of Education when he was made aware of homophobic bullying that had put a student's well-being and possibly his life in danger. Thanks to his quick action and willingness to promptly connect with said student, his life may have been not only spared, but enhanced that day.

Today's discussion focused on homo"phobia" in the classroom.
I put "phobia" in quotations because I don't believe it is a phobia as much as it is just plain old prejudicial hate toward a specific type of people. Like racism. In fact, from now on, let's not call it homophobia - let's go with gaycism.

So anyways, after the story, an inevitable class-wide discussion ensued with no general point and no relevance to education. Of course the religious connotations of gaycism, but eventually someone turned the discussion back toward its intended course.

Eventually the question was posed by someone in the back that really struck a chord with the rest of the class - "What do we do when faced with these situations?" Everyone had been thinking it. I kept the debate going by offering a suggestion to approach the situation in a universal way like pre-meditated anti-bullying videos shown in class.

Dr. RN explained it best this way - the best way to deal with a problem is before it arises. And if there is an incident, deal with it head-on - "No, that's not appropriate," "Don't be a bully," "That behaviour is not acceptable."

"But what if you call their parents and their parents support their discriminative behaviour?"

Another brilliant response from Dr. RN - ultimately, the fact is there is a zero-tolerance policy against bullying or mistreatment of any kind. We have rules in the public school system for how kids are supposed to treat each other, and if the parents don't like it, too bad.