PEERS provides MLAs recommendations to improve P.E.I. schools for LGBTQ youth
CBC
Bullying and harassment over gender and sexuality should not be as tolerated in Island schools as it is today, a legislative committee heard Friday.
PEERS Alliance presented before the committee on education and economic development and provided recommendations on how the situation could be improved for LGBTQ youth in the province's school system.
"Middle school is hard enough … when you have that isolation and that bullying that happens to you in schools, I mean, it's really quite awful," youth program coordinator Vanessa Bradley told CBC News after the presentation.
"We just talked about what youth have felt and noticed as they have been bullied and harassed for gender-based issues and their gender-based identities."
In preparation, PEERS spoke to people within its youth group to hear more about their specific experiences.
"I came out two years ago and I had a couple people going around telling everyone that I was faking being transgender," one student wrote.
"I've been bullied my whole life for something I can't control. I get called slurs walking in the halls and it's worse outside where there's no teachers. It's something no one should go through," wrote a second student.