First Trans Awareness Week- IES La Rosaleda

Assigned sex is a label that we are given at birth based on medical factors, including our hormones, chromosomes, and genitals. Sometimes, our genetically assigned sex does not line up with our own perception or our feelings regarding our gender. Researches show that a person, who feels like that, has suffered, at least on time, bullying and social exclusion. LGTB at School Erasmus+ project contributes to decrease the number of bullying and social exclusion cases, aiming to open a dialogue in the participants schools in order to remove taboos related to gender.

According to the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights 2019 Report, based on a survey about LGBTI people in the EU, the school still is far from a safe place for LGBTI students. The 45% of the survey participants felt discriminated against at school. In the same framework, it is important to highlight that 69% of them were Trans. As reported by the Spanish NGO Federation of Lesbians, Gays, Trans and Bisexuals(FLGTB), Transphobia appears in classrooms in 58% of the cases (Report 2019: Young Trans in the Education system).This shows a need for policy measures targeting children and young people belonging to this group.

In this context, the LGTB at School project organized the first Transgender Awareness week, which took place in the highschool IES La Rosaleda from 22nd to 25th March 2020. Our goal was to raise awareness and give information to the whole school community in order to create a Trans friendly and inclusive school environment. The event started with a guided visit of a Trans Photography Exhibition. It was a small sample of 20 photos of different Trans people. We chose those people between more than 100, our criteria was academic and work performance in order to break stereotypes such as cross-dressers, drag queens and drag kings.

The second day of the event was dedicated to dismantling myths on the reality of trans people and the new Spanish Trans Law. We had the honor to count with the NGO CHRYSALLIS Andalucía. Its president, María José Márquez and Serena Gil, a young Trans, analysed the current situation, obstacles and problems that a Trans person can face and opened a debate about the new Spanish Trans Law.

Then, on the third day, we watched the movie 3 Generations, which is about a New York teen (Elle Fanning), who prepares to transition from female to male. A very interesting debate followed the movie. We closed our event playing our Diversity Trivial. An extra mark in Philosophy subject was given to the students, who were members of the winning team.

This event identified a great lack of information on transsexuality in schools and visibilized stories of Trans people who have suffered systematic stigmatization. Luckily, the majority of the students and professors embraced our initiative and they actively participated in it.

This event inaugurated a new era for our school, giving the opportunity to understand that the Trans youth need the same things as cis youth, that is: love, respect, support and enjoy the same rights and obligations as the rest of the students, neither more nor less!

Bullying and the Ugly Duckling

The Ugly Duckling, central character of the homonymous fairy tale of the Danish autor, H.C. Andersen, was bullied for being different from the other ducks in the stable, until he simply accepted himself and realized that he had exactly the same value as all the other animals in the stable...until he realized that he was a beautiful swan!

Unfortunately, Bullying is not just a topic of fairy tales with moral lessons or a kind of humor. How many of us have been in the place of the Ugly Duckling, the other animals as bullies or just as bystanders?

But, first, let's talk about what bullying is:

Bullying is unwanted, aggressive behavior among school aged children that involves a real or perceived power imbalance. It includes actions such as making threats, spreading rumors, attacking someone physically or verbally, and excluding someone from a group on purpose.The behavior is repeated, or has the potential to be repeated, over time. Both kids who are bullied and who bully others may have serious, lasting problems.

Just a month ago UNESCO, the UN organization for education, science and culture, recognized that Bullying constitutes a concern of global relevance (based on 2019 data).

The LGTB at school being concerned about the Bullying consequences organized a workshop about it, which took place in IES La Rosaleda. The main speaker was the psychologist, Luis Rodriguez, who talked about the consequences and the causes not only from the point of view of the victim but also from the bully´s. 

Moreover in the same framework, a survey, with the participation of students from the four project partners, was conducted. Among the positive results, it is to highlight that the most participants know what Bullying consists of and recognize it as a challenge for the school community. Furthermore, 87% of the participants are not afraid to come to school and feel safe. Likewise, most of them also feel safe on the way home.

According to the survey, social media is the keystone for the quick advance of this complex social phenomenon. Αnonymity online has become a tool to spread misinformation and to harass and hurt other people. In the same vein, hiding behind anonymity, the majority of Bullying episodes occur in the school washrooms. This type of Bullying includes writing offensive comments on the walls or someone's phone number and in worse situations recording a video while someone is using the toilet. 

What does school do in order to prevent and address Bullying? The majority of the students mentioned lack of trust in the school staff. Is that ´´Warning mode ON´´ for the school staff? Yes of course!

The victims can not and they should not handle alone the problem. The bullies also need help! The solution is:

-More awareness campaigns not only for the students but also for the school staff and the parents,

-Keep the lines of communication open and encourage the students to report Bullying,

-Advance social and emotional learning, that involves teaching skills of self-awareness, self-management, social-awareness, responsible decision making, and relationships management. 

We may take under consideration that the bully, probably, is a person who suffers, maybe someone who did not get the social or family acceptance, that she/he needed. There is a lot of different reasons to be a bully. In most of the cases, the bully is treated as a criminal, cause the punishment is the easy solution: you just expel the bully and you are done. As a matter of fact, the bully keeps  the same or worse attitude in her/his new school. Teachers should counsel and rehabilitate such students through social and emotional learning methods.

Last but not least, (as it is the most curious for me): More than the average of the participants says that they have never been a victim of bullying. Likewise the !96%! of the participants says that they have never been bullies. I do not know if we should consider those tightly connected results as just positive data or should we look deeper...for issues of acceptance and recognition? We know more or less the definition of Bullying, but are we able to accept that we have been bullied or bullies?

Let's work on it together and make our school ´´Bullying Free Zone´´.

And for all of us that felt at least one time in our life as the Ugly Duckling did, just bear in mind the last sentences of the fairytale:

- He had been persecuted and despised for his ugliness, and now he heard them say he was the most beautiful of all the birds. Even the elder tree bent down its boughs into the water before him, and the sun shone warm and bright. Then he rustled his feathers, curved his slender neck, and cried joyfully, from the depths of his heart, “I never dreamed of such happiness as this while I was the despised ugly duckling”.-

WHAT HAS ART MEANT TO YOU? A REVIEW OF THE FILM PHILADELPHIA

 

    Art is not an intellectual but dispensable production, a kind of ornament without which we can live. On the contrary is one of the most important elements of our culture. It expresses our concerns, the way we feel about the world we are living, our ambitions, wishes or hopes. Moreover, art also changes the way we feel. It opens new perspectives, because art shows the same reality we know from a different point of view and, therefore, help us to understand better the reality that surrounds us.

    But art also helps to become aware of the problems that exist in our society. It happend with the film Philadelphia, an Amareican film produced in 1993, directed by Jonathan Demme and starring Tom Hamks and Denzel Washington. It was one of the fiirst films that spoke openly about AIDS, homophobia and discrimination at work.

    VIH was isolated for the first time in 1983, by that time it meant a mortal illness and people panicked. Those who were infected sufferd employment discrimination. Particularly LGTB people, suffered a double discrimination, because of the infection and becuase of being LGTB, as a part of the society considered that it was their sexuual behaviour that was the cuase of the infection. Many awareness campaigns were need to change the situation and make people understand that VIH could be stopped is we all took preventive meassures, to make people see, that we were all safe by doing that, that we were not at risk by working with an infected person. In few words, that the discrimination people suffered was unbeareble and totally absurd. 

In this context, the film Philadelphia came to help. It showed openly that kind of discrimination and introduced  this debate in our society. 

More than 30 years after our students wanted to know what did this film mean to our generation.

CREATING ART

     

    Finally we decided to create our own piece of art!!!!

     Thankfully we have extraordinary students. Spencial reference should be made to Miguel Muñoz Alabarce student in IES La Rosaleda and in the conservatory of music in Málaga. He and the producer Luis Amador Goberna have created the song Free Spirits that talks about freedom and pride and breaking down stereotypes in a very optimistic way.

    We were so completely happy with the result that we decided to record it and Bahia Records was in charge of it. Students and teachers had a great time. 

    Not only the song fits perfectely with the project, but it is really good itself. Here you can check it and see if tou don't end the video singing the chorus.

    THANKS MIGUEL AND THANKS TO ALL THE STUDENTS AND TEACHERS FOR YOUR COMMITMENT!!!!

Day Trip to Córdoba

     We wanted to take adventage of this exchange to show our partners a little bit more about our culture. In this sense we chose Córdoba because it represents an example of tolerance, as different cultures (Christian, Jewish and Islamic) lived there peacefully and this mixture contributed to its cultural development.
     Of course, it is a crime to visit this city without getting into la Mezquita. So this was our first stop.

 

But later on we had an appointment with "Personas"  where we joined a workshop on LGTB rights. There, while playing, we learnt about the legal framework all over the world students were able to do any kind of questions or to give and exchange their opinion in a safe enviroment.

FIRST EXCHANGE OF STUDENTS IN MÁLAGA

     HERE WE ARE! OUR FIRST EXCHANGE OF STUDENTS TOOK PLACE IN MÁLAGA.
     After being working on LGTB legal framework, we met in Málaga to share experiences and learn more about the way to get more respectful schools and societies.
This was our plan










However, pictures speak louder than words, and here is a brief summary of the week in this beautiful video done by the English teacher Ana Concejero

    As we can read on the program, we started talking about the current situation concerning LGTB rights or phobia in our schools. The results of the different countries were rather similar, except for Romania, as we were told that being LGTB was a kind of taboo. In this sense, we want to thank this country for taking part in this project as they set an examle for other schools.

    We would also like to thank the lawyer Charo Alises who is always willing to help. She had visited us before and on this occasion she was was accompanied by a member of the Erasmus Student Network who translated her lecture about  hate crimes

    Then we continuedwith a LGTB Tour through the city.  Erasmus Students Network and Apoyo Positivo were in charge of it. They introduced the city to our partners, its past and its present, talking about LGTB personalities from Málaga or places. So it contributed to make more visible LGTB  community and how they have contributed to create more spaces of freedom in the town.

Jorge Suáres Muñoz from the Erasmus Student Network

Apoyo Positivo

 

   
     We would ike to mention an interesting anecdote that speaks about how much stereotypes are spread, even if we want to fight against them: 
 After the tour we were handing out among the people we met some badges with the logo of the project to let them know what we were working on. We saw, then, a young man wearing dreadlocks, so we adress to him, but he refused to takeone of our badges, because he said "he disagrees with homosexuality". On the opposite, a middle aged woman came to meet us and congratulated us for the project, that she considered quite necessary, specially because her daughter was trans. This situation made us think that, although one of the aims of this project is to fight against stereotypes, we ourselves aren't safe from them, as we had just thought that a young boy was going to be more open minded just beacuse of this age and of the dreadlocks.

End of the Tour

     

    Other important moment of this exchange was the presentations about LGTB rights, historical personalities and the results of the diagnosis in each school. It was quite interesting as we could compare the situations of the different countries and enrich our knowledge. Students had been workin on this topic for a couple of months and they did it quite well.

Thanks to our students' research and the presentations they ellaborated, we could also learn more about LGTB rights and personalities in different countries:

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM SPAIN

     Christmas were coming and we decided to wish our school community a very merry Christmas whereas making visible our project. This greeting card was selected among several designs done by our students. It represents our best wishes of tollerance for the whole world.
     Here it is the card done by Belén Herrera, Miguel Muñoz, Noemí Alvárez and Noe Recio from the second year of Baccalaureate.

 And the message inside:

     But still we wanted to make our project more visible. So the card was posted on Instagram and  handed out by a human pride flag!
Seven students, each of them wearing a different colour sweatshirt, composed the pride blag. They went through the halls of the different pavilions of the school visiting the staff room, the different classes, cleaners, administrative staff ...handing out this Christmas cards and we have to point that we were very welcome.