Slides for my journal club presentation to paediatricians on Stonewall's School Report looking at issues facing LGBT+ youth. Talk given at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Edinburgh.

1. The
School
ReportThe experiences of gay young people in Britain’s schools in 2012
ThomO’Neill
TW: S, SH

2. healthcare for
lgbt+ kids

3. The
Study

4. The Study
1614 LGB
young people

5. Age 11 - 19

6. The Study54%girls
45%boys

7. The Study
92% white
8% bme

8. The Study
18%
disability
or mental
health
problem

9. 10%
respondents
from scotland

10. homophobic
bullying

11. of lesbian, gay and bisexual
young people experience
homophobic bullying
in Britain’s schools.
55%

12. It happens anywhere,
but particularly in
sports lessons. I
have to change in a
separate changing
room now because
of the abuse.
Alex, 15, secondary academy (South West)

13. gay pupils don’t feel safe at school.
Pupils who experience homophobic bullying are three times
more likely than those who aren’t bullied to say they don’t
feel safe at school.
One in five

14. I’ve heard a teacher tell
another openly gay student to
‘act less gay and stop
poncing around and
flaunting it’ while he was
complaining to her that he was
getting bullied.
Alfie, 13, secondary academy (South East)

15. pupils who
experience
homophobic bulling

16. Who experiences
homophobic bullying?

17. types of bullying

18. Sometimes I’d get messages on
Facebook from people I didn’t
know threatening me and telling
me not to come back into school.
Will, 16, secondary school (Greater London)

19. Consequences

20. I feel that I don't want to carry on
in school if this is what I have to put
up with and hide what I feel all the
time.
Simon, 14, secondary school (South West)

21. More than two in five (43 per
cent) lesbian, gay and bisexual pupils
who experience homophobic bullying
and even one in three (35 per cent)
gay pupils who haven’t been bullied
don’t feel that they are
achieving their best at school.

22. Three in five gay pupils who
experience homophobic bullying say
that this impacts on their school
work. One in six (16 per cent) say
it’s had a big effect on their
school work.

23. I got bullied because a girl
outed me on her bus telling
everyone that I’m a lesbian.
After that I got bullied for
a year and a bit, then I left.
Bryony, 13, now home schooled (South West)

24. Because of the bullying I
received in school, I was
diagnosed with depression,
self-harmed and had
suicidal thoughts.
Gemma, 16, FE college (South East)

25. standard
screening for
depression for
everyone
surveyed

26. of gay pupils who experience
homophobic bullying have
symptoms consistent with
depression.
46%

27. of gay young people who
aren’t bullied are also
likely to be depressed.
35%

28. 49% of girls
29% of boys

29. I have recently started to cut myself.
I have had enough of being hated by so
many people for just being who I am.
Rufus, 15, secondary academy (East Midlands)

30. I once carved the
words ‘dirty lesbian’
into my thigh because
people kept calling
me that. I hated myself.
Claudia, 17, single-sex secondary academy (South
East)

31. of gay young people
deliberately harm
themselves.
56%

32. of black or minority
ethnic gay young people
deliberately harm
themselves.
83%

33. lesbians and bisexual
girls are twice as
likely as gay and
bisexual boys to
self-harm
(72 per cent compared to 36 per cent)

34. I experienced a lot of
bullying at school.
I contemplated suicide
and attempted it enough
to get me referred to the
Child and Adolescent
Mental Health Service.
Drew, 17, sixth form college (West Midlands)

35. Nearly one in four
lesbian, gay and bisexual young
people have tried to take
their own life at some
point.

36. 7 in 10 lesbian
and bisexual girls
and
6 in 10 gay and
bisexual boys
have suicidal
thoughts.

37. black and
minority ethnic
gay boys have highest
risk of suicidal
thoughts, at
76%

38. of transgender young
people have tried to take
their own life.
48%
(separate study)

39. The bullying went on for the whole
five years of secondary school.
From when I started to when
I finished. I tried to fight back.
I was depressed, I cut,
and I was on the verge of suicide.
For one year, I came home everyday
crying into my mum’s arms, saying I
wanted to leave the school.
Rabi, 15, sixth form college (Greater London)

40. implications for
practice

41. thank you!!