Two high school students from the Coast recently attended the inaugural Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) National summit in Toronto, returning full of information and enthusiasm to inject into their local GSAs.
"It was just amazing," said Chatelech Secondary GSA president Belinda Dinsmore while making a presentation to the School District No. 46 (SD46) board June 11. "All the open heartedness and acceptance that was there, not having to hear lots of slandering speech. You hear that a lot in our hallways, and it's really unfortunate, but they taught us how to help people not use that language, like other words that they can use to help describe what they're feeling."
Dinsmore and Elphin-stone Secondary GSA president Alysha Monk were both sent to the OUTShine summit in Toronto May 17 to 20. The trip cost about $3,200 and was covered by SD46, the Sunshine Coast Teachers' Association, Chatelech and Elphinstone secondary schools and through funds raised by the Chatelech GSA.
Chat GSA teacher-sponsor Paddy McCallum brought the new national conference to the attention of Dinsmore and Monk.
"I could see that the workshops, events and speakers presented student leaders of GSAs with meaningful learning opportunities that would help them support other students in making their schools safer, more tolerant and more inclusive communities," McCallum said.
"That's what this is all about: student safety. The term 'alliance' is very important in GSA culture. It refers to the collective efforts made by all students, regardless of their sexual orientations, on behalf of students who might be at risk due to their sexual orientation, or even the questioning of their orientation."
Dinsmore and Monk said they felt safe and accepted while at the summit, with both mentioning the lack of slanderous speech.
"Not hearing the words 'that's so gay' or 'you fag' for four days was refreshing, and when we came home those hurtful things were so much more prominent and noticeable," Monk said in a prepared statement Dinsmore read to the school board. "Hearing it 10 or more times a day in your hallways shows that we really have a problem in our schools."
Students said the summit provided lots of opportunities to talk about ways to make schools safer and more accepting.
"Seeing all these students get together and brainstorm ideas and share solutions proved to me that students in the school can make the change," Monk said.
Both Monk and Dinsmore said they came back with solid ideas and plans to get more support and acceptance of their GSAs in the coming school year.
Dinsmore has already shared much of the information she gathered with her GSA and said her group is excited to work with the new knowledge.
"It's going to be really cool to implement all the knowledge about how we can bring our GSA forward and just to help show acceptance in all of our schools," Dinsmore said.
McCallum said the conference was a "tremendous learning opportunity" for the two students.
"They returned with not only lots of substantial and useful resources, but also with a broader understanding of the issues facing LGBQT [lesbian, gay, bisexual, questioning, transgender] kids across the country. Experiences such as these help students assume greater leadership roles within their school communities; in fact, the impact is already being felt through a sharing of ideas and information at meetings and in the planning of events for next year," McCallum said. "They also returned with a greater understanding of the role that collaboration can play and have now begun reaching out to other school groups to share objectives and plans for next year."
School board chair Silas White thanked Dinsmore and Monk for their report during the June 11 school board meeting.
"It's important to recognize you're really doing bold, pioneering work for present students in our school district and in the future as well," White said. "We really appreciate how substantial the work you're doing is."
