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A Florida teenager finds school officials apathetic on sexual harassment.

Growing up, no one told me that people shouldn’t be gay. My parents didn’t tell me I shouldn’t talk to kids whose parents were lesbian. My neighbors didn’t rant against the horrors of gay rights. Instead, all the people in my life encouraged me to live openly, to take people’s personalities and see the beauty in them, to smile at the adorable young couple clutching each other’s hands, no matter their gender. Love was love. I lived in a world blissfully ignorant about the cruelties of the “real world.”

In Minnesota, yet another group is organizing backlash against equitable teaching practices. It's an all-too-common threat—and a reminder that educators need more support.

Whether or not the topic of sexual harassment comes up in class organically, teachers must address it with students. This teacher suggests ways to do that with sensitivity.

Gay-straight alliances are taking hold in middle schools, where homophobia and anti-gay harassment may be the most rampant.

New evidence of the bullying crisis in our schools appears daily in news reports and blogs. For some students, verbal harassment, cyber-ostracism and physical abuse are as routine as turning in homework. That’s particularly true for students who are—or simply perceived to be—gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender (LGBT).

Twenty-eight teachers in my master’s level class silently moved en masse to the right side of the room to signify that they would teach the civil rights movement to their elementary students. In fact, most considered it negligent to ignore this historic movement that brought about the end of segregation in our country.