balance was necessary. that their experiences, it really mattered about how the victim or how they internalized what was going on. in terms of the actual items that we had for that first version and the toll up of rep decision -- follow up of repetition, it was the use of over and over that they were getting hung up on. that to them seemed like a consistent thing that was happening all the time. and even though they had experienced something more than once or twice, they indicated negatively to that repetition follow-up item. so i believe what we're considering is changing it to again and also asking, refining our frequency questions to ask about how many days it has occurred and how many times it has occurred. don't quote me on that. i need to see what the final wording is, but it's something along those lines. we wanted to have a better

understanding of what exactly how persistent it is happening and how often it's happening. i hope that answers your question. >> [inaudible] >> the power and balance, that one was interesting. it's -- some kids did say that, you know, there had to be some type of power differential, but a lot of other ones said that there were kids who had less power that would bully to try to gain power, who were less popular, who would bully in order to gain popularity. so they didn't really agree with the requirement to have that component. but we did want to -- and continue to include it as a follow-up question to see if that power imbalance was there. and then we can kind of determine on the back end if they indicated there was some type of power imbalance, that that was present. >> thank you. >> uh-huh. >> [inaudible] hi. this question is in relation to

school crime supplement. can you speak to me about the presence of sexual orientation and gender identity data collection as a basic demographic factor which would allow you to compare different variables that you have, and different questions that you've asked to those specific analyses. >> sure. so the supplement itself actually doesn't include any demographic collection. that is actually included in the ncvs core. and what we do is we take our data and append the ncvs data, and that's how we come up with our estimates for different subgroups. so that's actually a question for bureau of justice statistics, because that part, they sponsor that part. what i can tell you is that they have included items to the core -- [inaudible conversations] >> thank you so much.

i hope that you all enjoyed your lunch. i am very excited about the rest of the afternoon, and we have a great panel right now. this panel is entitled strategies to create safe understanding and inclusive academic environments moderated by stephanie rath, a juvenile justice specialist for the office of juvenile justice and delinquency prevention at the u.s. department of justice. she works with internet be crimes against children task forces, the federal partners in bullying prevention, tribal youth programs and issues related to youth gangs, mentoring and welcome health. let's welcome steffi. [applause] >> thank you, everyone. i'm very excited about this panel. we are taking pictures, and we're just very, very excited to share all this information with you. [laughter] so welcome to our session titled keeping kids safe. as sarah said, promoting tolerance and inclusion amongst students to prevent bullying. i want to thank our panelists for participating today.

thank you so much. coming from faraway places. we will first hear from jenny speegler from the anti-defamation lead, director of curriculum in the national education division. she has been working in the field of education for 20 years which includes overseeing various educational programs, developing curricula, overseeing assessment and research and writing anti-bias and social justice education. we will then hear from brenda, attorney at law for muslim advocates. she serves as the director for the program to strengthen muslim charities and muslim advocates. she has ten years of experience in civil rights, regulatory right -- laws. she focuses on helping community institutions and houses of worship by educating them about their legal rights and insuring their protection in the current climate of anti-husband limb sentiment.

through her role she advocates for improving policies related to hate crimes, bullying and discrimination. she works directly with affected communities on a national level. next we will hear from are dr. basi, a clinical assistance professor in the department of psychiatry at michigan state university, and she's a staff psychiatrist at the university student health center. she emigrated from pakistan and settled in the united states in the year or 2000 with her husband and three daughters. dr. basi was awarded a fellowship to create awareness about cultural competency, to redefine it as not just tolerance for others, but acceptance for others. she works, the doctor's work has led her to publicly address the barriers that stigmatize and silence meantal health issues within the islamic community. finally, we will hear from the c coalition.

ms. core is executive director and has been in her role since the year 2009. ms. core previously served as managing direct or of strategy with the human assets team at teach for america. there she was responsible for facilitating the formulation and evolution of human capital priorities, strategies, covering areas such as compensation, staff retention, organizational strength and employee satisfaction. ms. core became the first sikh to speak in a presidential inaugural prayer service, so welcome, panel. thank you. [applause] >> hello, everyone. i'm really happy to be here. i work at the anti-defamation league, and i work within the education department. i may be talking fast be, partly that's i'm a new yorker, and also i want to share the space, obviously, with this wonderful panel. so i'm going to be talking a

little bit about identity-based bullying in general, and then, you know, we'll talk a little bit about classroom environments and creating what we need to be inclusive and safe class room environments. and then the rest of the panel will speak more specifically. so this is our definition at the anti-defamation league of bullying, which is very similar to the government definition. it has the same componentings. i highlighted the power imbalance because we talk about identity-based bullying, it's very much about the power imbalance. so in general, the power imbalance speaks to either social power, you know, what popularity, inclusion and exclusion. there can also be physical power between people -- strength, height, looks, etc. and where we start talking about identity-based bullying, we may

focus on majority versus minority be groups or people who are marginalized. so identity-based bullying is any form of bullying related to the characteristics considered unique to a youth's identity such as race, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, etc. a key, important point is that the cause of the identity-based bullying or some people call it bias-based bullying is not the identity. the cause is the bias. and that's a a really important distinct to make to young people and to those of us who are talking about it because, you know, you don't want young people to feel like who they are is a problem. it's the bias and what we have to do something about is the bias. so some of the components of identity-based bullying, we talked about the imbalance of power. so in a school, you may have a majority group, you may have students who are mostly one religion, and so then the group

that's, you know, kids or who are different religion may -- there's a power imbalance there. young people have more money. there may be a school or a community that's hostile to lgbt youth, and so that's important to think about, the imbalance of power and who was in my school and who are the groups that are not in the majority or who are marginalized in some way. again, the motivation is often bias. and it can contribute to an environment where bias is acceptable. so if you're someone in a group that you see bullying happening, you feel like, okay, that could happen to me, i could be the next target. it also sends a message to the rest of the community that other groups can be targeted as well. and it can be a precursor to more destructive, violent or hateful behavior. so there is some research on identity-based bullying in general. unfortunately, there's not as

much as we would like. there is some research in the works, and i'll talk about that. this was a study that was done in 2005, so it's ten years ago, and this study is actually being redone -- has been redone, and the results will be disseminated in september. so it's data from 2015. but we see in this study -- it was with children ages 13-18, so teenagers -- how often are students bullied, called names or harassed for the following reasons at your school. so you see high on the list sexual orientation, gender exregistration, appearance and body size, ability at school. religion is on there. it's lower partly because that's 2005, and i think what the new study, you will see higher numbers there from everything we've been hearing about and you'll hear more about on this panel. i did want to mention that yesterday cdc came out with a big study, i think it was first

federal nationwide study of gay, lesbian and bisexual students, and there's a lot of day there, a lot of really depressing information. but one of the things that they found is that lgb students are two times more likely to be bullied than heterosexual students. so this probably isn't surprising, but it's an important study because it's nationwide. they used, you know, really big numbers of students. so as i said, this particular study from teasing to torment is going to be released in september with new data from 2015. another study around different categories, this was a study with high school students in connecticut. and you see some of the same trends; appearance, being overweight,ing with one of the primary, very high in terms of kids being targeted were that, for bullying. being gay or lesbian, ability at school, race, ethnicity, physical disability, religion

and socioeconomic status. so in the first column, that's the primary be reason students are teased or bullied, and then in the next column these are behaviors that are observed sometimes, often or very up. the categories are more about students looks or body size, not being good at sports, how well they do in school. 0 not conforming to traditional gender roles and people think they're gay and lesbian. a study in 2012 with elementary students. this slide is hard to read but pacer compiled different studies

for different groups of kids. so there's the -- on the top there's a bunch of studies about students with disabilities, students of color, students who lgbtq and weight-based bullying so you can go to the link and find individual studies on these different areas of identity. >> one of the ways at adl we look at this concept of how hate and bias escalates is the pyramid of hate. it's a visual image of how the seeds of hate and bias start at the bottom of the pyramid with bias, with stereotyping. attitudes that play out by -- with noninclusive language, stereotyping, insensitive remarks et cetera, and then moves to acts of prejudice between people. so that we -- bullying would be in that category, name-calling. social exclusion and avoidance, and then we move up the pyramid to discrimination and so that's

where we see actions often on behalf of institutions but could be explicit or could be also what we're hearing a lot about implicit bias. so institutions that -- the workplace, school, et cetera, where bias plays out. so then we move into bias motivated violence and genocide way up. the whole idea of looking at it this way is if we address it at the bottom level of bias, one way to look at it when it goes unchecked, it can move quickly upbut if we really try to address it, especially with young people, at this level, we hope to be able to have an impact on the trajectory. so, i know i don't have a lot more time, but one of the things that we do in terms of -- in the education world at adl, we think how to make our schools more safe, exclusive and respect --

ininclusive and respectful in all of these ways. so all of these represent ways we intervene, we prevent, and that we educate young people. so, i'll just go through a few that are important. self-exploration. when we train teachers, we first start -- they start with themselves. so it's important to examine our own and teachers to examine their own cultural and other biases. we have seen and heard about -- you'll hear more on the panel -- bullying that happens by the teacher, bias perpetuated by the teacher. with muslim ching. lgbt students, on awe levels. that's a very important part. went teachers to create culturally responsive classrooms where the experiences, the words, the perspectives, are of all different kinds of people in the curriculum in the books that we read with young people. are in the classroom displays, in the literature. so that important in terms of

ongoing education. it's important that intervention happens when bullying and bias happen, that we stop and we address it immediately, because if there's violence we're basically condoning it. so, we want to establish a safe environment for all students so it's really personality to not let it go unnoticed. and unaddressed. and that we also think it's important to teach explicitly about bias discrimination, stereotypes and social justice. this is an important thing to think about. most bullying happens when adults aren't around. when does it happen? happens in recess, on the bus, at lunch, in the hallway, after school. very rarely happens in -- under the eyes of teachers or other school staff. and at the same time, students don't report bullying, so almost 50% of high school students told nobody when they were bullied. it's the numbers are little

better when young people are in elementary school but gets increasingly less likely that students will report. so, one of the things that -- so for that reason, we want to make sure that teachers and people working with young people are more approachable, and we also want to help young people be allies to move prom being bystander to being allies because they're around when this happening. so i'll just leave you with this idea. we what want teacheres to be available, be a role model and don't bully or gossip ortiz yourself. maintain confidentiality when possible and be pro-active to help students become allies, and being an ally is a big core part of our work because young people are the ones around when bullying and bias is happening. we want to teach young people -- they need to be taught explicitly. doesn't just happen.

and there are many people think about being an ally, i have to stand up and say something to the person who did something. and that not the only way to be an ally. you can support the targets, whether you know them or not, and that's something that is a very simple thing and it actually is -- research about what a difference it makes. so saying something nice to the person-sending them a text. telling them you didn't think that was okay. you can actively not participate. so if bull bullying happening, if kidder laughing, if a young person just moves away or doesn't laugh, that signals to the person being targeted that they don't accept it. telling aggressors to stop, saying that's not cool. stop it. don't do that anymore. don't like that. inform a trusted adult and get to know people instead of judging them. that's part of our ongoing education. if young people aren't around different people, they -- we

need to teach them and make diversity part of the curriculum and also to be an ally online. so just quickly -- this is on your flash drive probably but adl developed a lot of different materials and so we have specific lesson plans for teachers around some of the specifically anti-muslim bigotry and bias we have been seeing lately. we have lesson plans on identity-based bullying, parent and family resources and general resources for educators and teachers. so all of those are in, i believe -- right -- in the flash drive with links and all of that. so, thank you. [applause] >> good afternoon, thank you all for coming. i have the uneven have iable role of speaking after lunch so

hopefully all of you are well caffeinated. i work directly with islamic centers and nonprofits across the country, and the number one of thing we have been hearing from parents, and as a parent myself, i fully understand, is a concern about anti-muslim bullying. today i'm going to geoff a very short overview to help contextualize the bullying of muslim students and give a brief background on the american muslim population. so, just to start, the studies have -- are widely varied in terms of the number of american numbers hims in the country. we have seen studies that show that american muslims 3 million in america. we have seen that show as high as 6 million, which leaves us between one percent and two percent of the american population in one study we have seen that the american muslim population is expected to double by the year 2050, and what that it means is that in some cities, you'll have a much higher concentration of american

muslims, while in other parts of the country you'll have very few muslims in your classroom, and also, as -- here i put a short bar graph to show the diversity of the muslim community. this highlights the muslim -- it's hard to read -- the second one there -- but shows there's no majority demographic when it comes to the american muslim population. 38% identify as white, 28% identify as black, 28% identify as an immigrant community, and then there's small percentage of latinos and whatnot. that means in your classroom, you might find somebody like me with the name of brenda you night not know is an american muslim and might find others from an immigrant population or or who are african-american muslims but the point is that american muslims have been in this country for a very long time. and when we talk about anti-muslim bullying we want to make sure we contextualize it.

it does not happen in a vacuum. in the year 2016 american muslims continue to make the news cycle in a very unfavorable way. and if we look back at studies from 2012. 40 percent of the american population viewed muslims favorably in 2014 we saw a steep decline, down to 27%, and as you can imagine, we expect that number will be much lower today in 2016. and so what i put here is just a word cloud of some of the words that some of your students and your classrooms are continually bombarded with. everything from bands of muslims to muslims being like uncorked animals. the types of rhetoric and the type of climate that we live in today, and that american muslims are continually surrounded by. and as part of our work at muslim advocates we work on tracking hate crimes against the american muslim population, and since november 2015, we have

identified over 100 hate crimes that have happened across the country. now, as much as that is a sharp increase in hate crimes against the community, we have also noticed that almost 50% of those have happened against houses of worship, and that is unique. in the past hate crimes happened between individuals, and now we're seeing houses of worship being attacked. and why is this relevant for students? it's important to understand that the mosque and the islamic centers serve as a community center, safe base for the american muslim population, and this where is they go on weekends, go to celebrate holidays, where they go for evening prayer services. this is really their home away from home. and when we see the islamic centers have everything from being fire-bombed to graffiti to bullet holes, this significantly impacts young american muslim

students. when we talk about how this impacts american students when it comes to bullying we do not have any national-based data to reflect the impact of anti-muslim bullingying well but we have smaller surveys and one in virginia, one in maryland, and one in california. what this shows is that in virginia, 80% of muslim youth felt they were the target of anti-muslim bullingy. in maryland, third of muslim students said they experienced insults or abuse because of their faith, and in california, in 2014 we found some of the studies reflect that 52% experns remarks. and we talked loot about peer-to-peer bullying but also find a lot of the resident psychiatric a lot of the -- rhetoric and a lot of the

bullying can happen from administrator at the school. some examples, we have heard of teachers passing out materials to their students called "everything you need to know about islam" and included in there it says 38% of muslims feel that if you leave the faith you should be executed, as well as giving instructions to students for what to do if you're taken hostage bay radical islamis. and these are the type of material wes have seen being passed out by teachers, and unfortunately in another report that we had from florida, we had a 14-year-old student whose teacher kept joking, and calling him raghead taliban and that student now feels uncomfortable going to school, and you can imagine, coming from someone in a trust relationship as a teacher. so moving forward, when we talk about strategies for positive engagement, the strongest evidence shows that when you increase cultural competency through training of teachers and

administrators, that fosters a multicultural environment and environment within the classroom of inclusivity is our best bet in terms of combating anti-muslim bias in the classroom. and also, when we talk about facilitating dialogue in the classroom, there is an initiative kicked off by the white house in december called "know your neighbor" talking about how a lot of folks do not communicate with others outside of their faith, and folks tend to only communicate with folks that are within their faith, and so trying to reach out, studies have shown that knowing someone from another religious group increases your positive views of that group and that can also help significantly decline bullying in that context. and another area which i know we talked bat few times today is a helpful fact sheet in dear colleague letters put out with the department of education, and muslim advocates have sent out a

letter to every single state superintendent in the country, reminding them of the concern of anti-muslim bullying and attaching a fact sheet and "dear colleague" larry as they give detailed, positive ways the schools can help combat that. and we have also asked community members to share with their local school districts to engage in the conversation on the local level as well. lastly, intervention and reporting incidents of bullying. as you'll hear more, from students later today, this is stale significant area where a lot of student does not feel comfortable approaching administration, they don't see what the point is, they don't see any sort of positive outcome, and a lot of them internalize the bullying that happens to them. so, efforts to increase intervention, early intervention, as well as reporting and encouraging reporting of bullying through anonymity would be incredibly helpful. thank you all.

>> peace be with you all. thank you, brenda, for setting up the stage for me, and -- [inaudible] -- okay. so, i'm glad brenda has set up the stage, and i can just go more. i do want to focus more on the mental health impact of bullying or toxic stress or trauma. so, -- so, i'm not going to go in -- we already know what bullying and is what forms it can be happening. i do want to talk about the kids who are bullied can experience negative, physical, academic,

relationships, and mental health issues. i need you to absorb that. the mental health impact on -- and this ifrom -- from my experience also, they can get really depressed, anxious, have increased feeling of sadness, loneliness, changes in -- loss of interest of things they used to enjoy and these can persist into adulthood. so isolation, disconnection. those are very important aspects to understand. academic impacts. i work within an academic setting. think we need to emphasize it enough because unfortunately in academic settings students become a number, and people are not really comprehending the impact of stress on cognitive

abilities and academic impairment. sense of isolation, discrimination, and alienation can impact self-esteem, long-term relationships, your identity can get deeply impacted and affected. this is from a mental health provider. this is very concerning what we see is insults and humiliation can lead to homicidal ideations, thoughts, plans, intent, and some of unfortunately act on it, too. we know one in four muslim students are reporting experiencing stress at school. so this is the model i created. what does it mean? oops, too small to read. basically what i'm talking about, for a muslim youth, negative perception, religious discrimination, all these play

an impact on creating this toxic stress. but i do want to talk about the defense mechanism. these are very important to understand. so, mostly we see is we did a study on the resilience on the muslim students at michigan state university. these were the students who were in second grade when 9/11 happened. so we took the admission to the university as an -- like, an indication of their residence, and what we found that kids who were very comfortable with their identity and were very comfortable talking about it, and felt accepted, so awareness and acceptances were the two keys. so, most of us have become very defensive. we constantly want to defend and talk about it but that puts so much pressure on you that one day a newing in, some headline happened and you don't go to your work and talk about it.

people are looking at you, why didn't you get up and talk about it? so that puts a lot of stress on the youth constantly to be on the defensive. our youth are disassociated. they don't want to be associated with anything muslim anymore, or anything political. that is the apathy setting in. disconnect. i'm not going participate either with the islamic centers or school activities or anything that is going to identify me as muslim. but i really want to talk about disso nance. let's think about what dissonance is. clash resulting from the combination of two disharmonious or unsuitable elements. the internal conflict. were are navigating these religious communities are

navigating bicultural identities. these immigrant or african-american kids are navigating bicultural identities. so what happened if the whole culture and the kill tour-do culture you were born unharm moanous. their identities are impactedded. then what happens when they get to the point of distress? they will either end up hurting themselves or hurting others. this is extremely important point. i do want to say one thing. what i see in these settings is when something is happening we all start talking about it. so the narrative is taken over by one community or one who is directly being affected, but i want to say this thing. it doesn't matter if i'm here --

speak here as a muslim or a sikh or for lgbt community. it's the same narrative. even if an lgbt kid is talking or a sikh person is talking, we're all using the same language and it's of pain, suffering, and stress. so this is what very is disturbing for me. couldn't sleep after reading this. this is a sixth grader who says for us muslims is act of violence was a heavy burden to carrying, knowing that people saw me and the rest of muslim for anger, targets for revenge, targets for retaliation. i knew that people give me dirty looks and yelled hateful things and sometimes even killed people who work close that presented the muslim religion or appeared

to be from middle east. this is a sixth grader. can you imagine what kind -- it's like carrying a bag of bricks on your shoulder all the time. and i insist these are no more microaggressions. we are going in very overt display of hate. these are some thing mist kid have experienced, if hey experienced. recent lay patient got concerned if i represent isis how can i be providing good care to him? things like why were you hiding osama. so this is the physiology of trauma. this tis what happens, and i didn't realize i put such small -- need change that -- the physiology of trauma is when there is toxic stress, but

there's also when there is verieer within the system. barriers to your integration. we need to talk about that. that there might be a willingness to integrate but the system is not set up to integrate you. we need to understand those challenges as well. i'm talking about solutions. i'm talking about applying the psychological model. that talks about bringing school, family and community together. and of course, it has to be awareness, education, engagement and letting this narrative be heard and giving them a chance to be spoke to the youth, the community to talk about it. this is very important. i read somewhere that we preserve what we love. and we love what we know. and we know what we have

learned. so, remember, if love is a learned experience, so is hate, bias and stigma, and it needs to be unlearned. so, what happens is -- this is from a native american movie, "bad sugar." i highly recommend. nothing about us without us. so when you talk about anyone, let them do the talking and just listen. what happens is when we do cultural competency or we plan these policies or implement practices, we are not taking in consideration the person is gonna impact. right? thank you. so, as a therapist and psychiatrist, one thing we learn is meet the person where they are. and for that you have to be a

very good listener. when we talk about a cultural identity, religion plays a very important part, and if we are talking about policies at this level, while we are religious data collection is at this point, even cdc or all the other organizations, even now presenting today, we have very small data. there's no data -- national data on religion. while religion does not just mean a set of practices and belief system, it can be your resiliency, very important tool of your -- but it is a very important part of your identity. let's use our words. through therapy, active listen, trump management. we talked about this.

-- trauma management but what is our biggest need? is to feel secure, and when do we feel secure? when we are heard. we feel safe, we feel trusted, we feel accepted, and we feel respected. this is something i came up with. so, it's interesting cultural competency. we're always talking about tolerance, right? majority extending tolerance to a minority. let's put it in a personal connection. are you guys going to just tolerate me? for how long? end of this conference or just -- i'm here, right? let's accept each other. acceptances is very open and when you accept someone you're opening your heart, your mind, your sole to meet them where they are.

i'm going to talk about how these can be applied. initiative needs to be taken on a personal level, interpersonal relationship. one thing want to focus on the school, which is a very point point being missed here, and stem from the native tribes talked about it. it's the curriculum reflecting what we are, who we are? is the curriculum giving you real clear historical data? if you are being started something in your classroom, which is not the true fact, which is the starting -- then you are already setting it up for more problems. teachers. in are the teachers being trained? like, what hannah said, diversity days. community conversations, all those are very important but when i say community conversations, i do want to emphasize, bring the faith leaders in this conversation. bring them in this conversation.

it's very important that we become comfortable with the faith leaders playing an important stakeholder role. and very important to engage your legislative -- they need to have them come to us and good to them should be comfortable with that. with that, my one thing, we keep talking about human behavior. we need to talk-do continue the dialogue around mental health, mental illnesses. cannot be in the help without enemy health. -- without mental health. thank you. [applause] >> good afternoon, everyone. thank you for your stamina in reaching this point in the day. as was mentioned my name is -- i lead an organization called a sikh coalition where a national

sikh civil rights organization founded in the wake of 9/11. as a seek american community began to experience extreme hate backlash, including sikhs who were first responder as ground zero. we have been work only issues relating to school bullying, since the inception. it's an epidemic in our community. sikh children -- we have done surveys nationally -- experience bullying at rates twice the national average. it's interesting because lots of folks don't who know who sikhs are. can you raise your hand if you know -- if you have heard the word "sikh" before. oh, good. that's automatic. i can tell you that typically when we give preparations like this, there's -- presentations liking this, there's one hand or two or confused expressions. maybe this will be more fun for you. so, want to talk a bit about who

are the sikhs. we see some smiling, happy facing looking back at us. there are lot of misconceptions about sikhs and our articles of faith. so, we're often confused for other faith traditions. people sometimes think that we're muslims because they see muslims with beards beards and temperature bans -- turn bans and actually while turn bans are worthing are, we're their only faith it's required of men and women and chance are that 99% of the people you see wearing turbans in america are actually sikhs. another miscontention, and we tissuely see this when we talk about school -- it's an independent faith, mono theis

stick religion and not branch or blend of any other faith. it's interesting, the sikh community comes from the sin cynthia cisneros sinjab region of asia, and second started emting to the u.s., first to california, the west coast. they found the imperial valley and central valleys of california to be very similar to the arid fields of sinjab and started growing crops, as they were involved in building the railroads and the filmber industry. i don't know -- the timber industry. the largest peach, pistachio, okra and raisin farms in america are owned by sikhs. a lot of interesting contributions to the fabric of this country. there was a wave of immigration to the east coast, '60s and

'70s so it's estimated there are at least a half million sikhs here in the u.s. the census does not count religious groups it's hard to know what the figures look like and it's estimated that half of that population'ses in the state of california. another reason to love california. i don't know how many californians are here. sikh is the fifth largest world religion. this fact really surprises folks. there are over 25 million adherents of the faith. globally, and when you put it in that context it is surprising that in most states here in the u.s., seamism is not taught alongside the other six largest faith traditions in the world and that's something we have been working on.

>> what their base yoke core-by-sikhism? well, they're anchored in the devotion to god. that you need to have -- you need to live a truthful life and you have an obligation to serve humanity. not just your faith, tradition, not just your family or yourself but all of humanity. and these are the core fundamentals of who sikhs are. when you think of our core values as americans, the core values that shaped our country, they're directfully sync with this philosophy. there are some very pronounced sikh articles of faith that are easy to recognize. and this is likely how you encounter sikhs. so, as i mentioned, sikhs keep unshorn long hair, both men and women. men tie their hair typically in a top knot on the top of their head and then wrap it in a majestic turban.

if think it's ma jess stick, and it's openingal forwomen. we have articles of faith. sikhs all wear a steel bracelet. typically on their right hand, so it doesn't have to be. there's a small comb that folks keep tucked into their hair nor neatness. there's a sword that is kept -- that is both practical and a symbol of defending your rights and the rights of others and then there is an undergarment that has to do with modesty. you think about the last 15 years in particular in the u.s. and what we see on tv, we see a lot of turban and hair equals terror, and i think people largely don't understand what the turban actually means elm turban is a symbol of justice, the pursuit of freedom, responsibility to stand up for the rights of others.

it's a symbol of devotion to god. when you see a sikh with a turban you should want them to be your neighbor, you should want your children to be in school with their children because they're telling you and how they exist in the world, what they're values are and that's those values are guiding their actions in this world. we have some work to do on education on that front. one of the most recognized articles of faith is the turban. just to upscore points i made before. the vast majority of people in the u.s. you'll encounter with turbans are sikhs. it's a religious obligation, not a fashion statement. though as you speak with sikhs you may learn they like to match the color to something they're wearing. it's obviously a part of who they are, and so they want it to be neat. they want to look good. this is how the world receives them.

and actually, to ask a sikh to remove their turban is akin to a strip search, literally akin to asking them to stand naked. and you can find sikhs in so many different professions. artists, actors, folks trying to serve in the u.s. military. the father of fiberoptics was a sikh in silicon valley. we have athletes. there are elected officials. there are people who are entrepreneurs, farmers, folks in all walks of life you'll encounter. so, if sikhs have been here over 130 years, why is it that there are so many challenges with school bullying in addition to the ones we have been discussing all day. largely we're misunderstood as a community, or people really don't know anything about us as a community. and so bullying has become an epidemic because the turban and

beard is equated with terror. what is really interesting in the research we have done, we found within the community bullying affects our youth at all socioeconomic levels in all types of schools, and across all geographies, and i can share if you we that in itself was surprising to the community. they would have thought there would have been some bright spots here and there. but across all demographics that's the case. there's some additional specifics i'll share that are difficult to read but i want to make sure you have enemy your material. one of the things we see when we do our research is that there are obvious solutions. while, for example in seattle, over 79% of the youth that were -- i'm sorry -- while 52% of the youth said there weren't adequate -- inadequate bullying programs, 79% of. the said the schools should do

something. to educate fellow students, teached and administrators and that would actually be preventive measure. we saw the same in other cities. again and again youth are telling us this is an epidemic, but it's fixable. some more statistics that sort of underscore that. so, what actually works? it's so interesting. so, we have heard a lot about cultural competency and heard about connecting on a human level. it's more difficult to fear something or have hostility towards someone that somehow you have connected with on a human level and been able to draw parallels between your life and your experience and the life and experience of that community. and so we found that actually education works and it works at all levels. it works with students. it works with teachers. it works with administrators, works in civic organizations,

with elected officials and the like. and part of why i walked you through the beginning part of the presentation is you got a little flavor of what some of the presentations that community members and trained professionals give in the school environment. they're longer, at more pop quiz stuff in them. sometimes video elements but basically they're an opportunity to share something about the sikh faith, to share something about people's neighbors, and get them to sort of humanize and understand the community. and we found that both as a preventive measure, as well as once an incident has taken place, that works. and i really want to underscore that, because when people know their neighbor, they're only then able to love their neighbor. so it's so important that we take an opportunity to educate teachers, administrators, about

the sikh american community, and us as an organization. we have trained folks who can give presentations across the country, and we have ready materials that are even available so that nonsikh outside indicators can also deliver that. it's really important. we were talking about education earlier. it's so important for kids that learn about the world's fifth largest religion and to learn correct information. we have been working for over a decade now in various states to have sikhism included in the state standards and have been successful in new jersey and new york, texas, and california. what's been so interesting is with worked with textbook manufacturers and most of the information, if any in those textbooks was grossly incorrect. so even when it was there, it said entirely false things which adds to a narrative of misunderstanding.

so we really need to work on that. and then we need to confirm school policies for reporting bullying and make sure that it's known to students and parents. we heard on an earlier panel about a case in dekalb county georgia, the sikh students where the parents didn't know their rights, their children's rights and how to protect them, and made certain concessions early on that weren't necessary. some hoff that has to do with limited english proficiency, some of it has to do with being unsure about the school system because perhaps as a parent, you didn't grow up here, or if you did, you are just not sure how your supposed to navigate that. so how do we make sure that students are reporting, are following processes and parents feel confident in advocating on their student's behalf, particularly before things escalate out of control so we can have more preventive

measures. and then really digging in a bit more on what are the policies and processes for resolving incidents when they happen? it was so fascinating for me is a was listening to the preparations this morning to hear about some of the things that don't work, and i have tons of question is want to follow up about that. what are the things that work in terms of what is restorative? what leads to positive behaviors, both for the student who was targeted as well as the student who what doing the targeting. how do we actually help children grow and learn and use the school environment as a place to better themselves holistically as they prepare to emerge as adults. i think that is also really important and deserves a lot more conversation. but? sitting and talking with sikh students, i hear from them all across the country, they want presentations to be given in schools. they want their teachers to be

knowledgeable. they want to open their textbooks and see an image and read text that feels accurate to them about who their community is, and the kind of -- they like that feeling. it gives them confidence. it gives them something to point to wife students in the classroom and often resolves many issues that come up or at least provides a pathway for them. so, thank you so much for your time. and of course if you have enough additional questions, i know all of our contact information has been shared. thank you. [applause] >> we have time for questions now. any questions?

[inaudible conversations] >> i wanted to -- dufor a great panel. was hoping you could address more explicitly the intersection between bullying and hate violence and law enforcement profiling and to what extent you believe that bullying perhaps is just a microcosm of what some people perceive to be the broader securitization of our communities. thank you. >> from a mental health point of view, we know that bullying impacts the person, the

perpetrator, the person like the victim, and the bystanders, and all these the groups go on to develop personality issues, mental health challenges. so if you learn that is the way to interact and deal with each other, this will go on and be reflective in your adult life. >> just going to say to that, as i mentioned earlier, the bullying of american muslim students does not happen in a vacuum. it is absolutely correlated whether or not i have data or not, but it is very clear that the environment and the climate we're living in today has a direct impact on the students as well as what other students are

bringing into the classroom with what ware hearing at home. the great quote, when you learn love you exude love -- pair praising -- if you learn hate you bring this into classroom and i thing the securitization of the american muslim community in addition to the increase in hate crimes against the american muslim community correlated with the increase in anti-muslim rhetoric, significantly impacts american muslim students. >> when you think about it on a simplest terms, it's every bit of information that is taken in by young people and never corrected equates fear with certain communities or the way certain people look. it will follow them as they move interest adulthood and take action, and then it's reinforced continuously. we talk about flying while sikh. what it means to be randomly screened at the airport 100% of the time.

and if you're standing there as a turban sikh man or woman and you're in the penalty box and hundreds of passengers are passing through the airport and seeing always the sikh pulled aside, they're having rebound forced for them this is what they need be afraid of. so that the threat weaves through, and i think what is so interesting about bullying prevention is that it's a prevention when it's targeted for race or religion ethnicity as well as other things, is an early stage intervention for much bigger societal issue. so we should have a lot of eggs in this basket and it will have a ripple effect. >> i'm from the unable council of teachers for english and our members from pre-k through graduate school, educationing children about all subgroups.

what we also fine any country challenges on those books. i was wondering do you work with states or districts regarding curriculum and to teach children and to help other teachers so they can teach these subjects? >> yes. and we would love to speak with you how to partner. >> we do -- at adl we have regional offices all over the country and do teacher training in all of those places, and we also have -- we talk a lot about children's books, curriculum, current events, an online big bibliography. they're hard to find teaching resources that go with them. what we find in the libraries and schools are really not those books.

so, it's not a statement curriculum but we try to implement that in as many places as possible. >> can i jump in with a question? thank you. so i'd love to hear your thoughts and wish i could direct this question to the previous panel as well because i think there's some intersection, but i'm just wondering about, for example, with some of the emergency operation training happening with schools, and the perpetuation, particularly in communities where they may have a lot of immigrants or refugees from areas where there is some terrorism and this preconception those folks might be more likely to have some -- some of that violence enter into the school

system, and is there -- are there any resources or training that you're aware of out there that would try to counter those biases or prejudices that might be coming into this school environment where they're trying to prepare against real threats of potential violence being enacted at the school, that really have nothing to do with the communities they're kind of pointing the finger at. does that make sense? >> actually, as we were come buying resources to -- compiling resources to provide what we're looking into -- i can speak from the muslim aspect of it. there has been individual small groups working in silos but we do not have any major -- correct me if i'm wrong -- so, definitely we are realizing the importance and we are trying to create resources and compile

resources and move towards something that we can offer, and right now i think, at least i volunteer myself wherever i can find that someone, like maybe i'll work with -- if they have a format we can adapt to the muslim needs and work with that. that's something that we are realizing is an area of need. and i was really concerned. there was some native articles that came up about military training, identifying muslim as a threat. so this is an extensive work that needs to be taken on and worked at. >> we have resources online forked of indicators that can be downloaded. so to go to our web site, and theirsles also contact information we can set you up with someone who can come and speak with had -- administrators.

>> this is robert mccao, i'm the council on american islamic relations. we had a survey in california that found that half of muslim students were victims of bullying but the -- one interesting fact was 29% of those students actually said the bullying was coming from teacher or faculty, and in the last several years we have seen the states of tennessee and florida enact legislation which would prevent certain types of education about the religion of islam or other religions in their middle school courses, world religious history courses which we find helps demystify islam and other religions and really is kind of a anti-bullying vaccination. do you see any pattern of either teacher opposition to teaching about world history when it comes to the religious aspects, which is part of our world

history, or do you encounter reports of teacher bullying of sikh students, just very interesting to see in the parallels. >> i would say we have heard that in pockets of teachers, sometimes school safety personnel, not at the same level as students on student bullying itch think one of -- i think one of the biggest challenges on the crick curriculum side and presentation side schools for a that the sikh parents or advocacy groups want to come into the school and proselytize. it's not a tenant of our faith and we're very clear on how this is a piece of education that fits in the world cultural or the social studies or in specific engage.

when we talk about the contributions of sikh americans to american society. and when we sort of final live get into that frame of discussion, there is no shortage of examples to point to of other faith traditions that are taught quite extensively in the classroom. so i think it's about having the patience to shift the conversation and that's both at the local level as well as at the state level we get that pushback. we just kind of keep at it, to push through. >> so, just a quick comment. i think the media the heightened focus and negative focus on certain religions and certain communities is impacting the teachers themselves, too, and personally, i know of one kid was told, like, by a teacher, that kids like you would end up on street, will never amount to anything.

i know personally a professor sending out letters that all -- that don't believe in the great american system should good home. so, definitely there are incidents there. unfortunately, we are at a level where we're identifying the problem. we need to come together and come with a solution, too. >> i'll be very quick. i just wanted to add first, thank you for the california survey. did cite to that during my comments. it is very wonderful to have. that's probably the most recent study we have had on american muslim bullying, and as part of that i wanted to add that after we sent out our letter earlier this week to all the state superintendents, some of the responses we have gotten have been tremendously supportive and some of those responses have been, we are working to put together a resource, to the earlier question, about how teachers can talk about welcoming syrian refugee families into the school environment. they're putting together

resources for teachers and we're starting to see now superintendents recognizing the issues that are impacting the american muslim community as well as the syrian refugee community as well, and putting together those resources. so we have -- i just wanted to say we have been getting responses, and this hunger for information to trickle down into the classrooms from thad mr.ors' perspective so we don't have teacher to student bullying. >> five more minutes. so we'll tries squeeze in whatever we can. go ahead. >> thank you for organizing this panel. i work with the council on american islamic relations as well. and my question actually ties in a little bit my colleague, robert's, in the sense i work in the state of maryland. i do a lot of outreach to muslim communities in the state, not just muslim but broader interfaith communities inch terms of bullying we noticed a pattern where there's more of a prevalence of incidents of muslim children being bullied by

educators, and i wanted -- my question ties into whether or not there are more resources available for parents and advocates in terms of helping them navigate the challenges of addressing situations where children are being bull yesterday not by their peers but by figures of authority who really kind of set the standard for what bullying is and how to challenge it. thank you. >> i would just say, back to my other point, more broadly, is that as we have been communicating more now with superintendents and getting feedback about what they can do to help prevent this, is think it is imperative we continue to work with these state superintendents to make sure they have the resources they need to trickle down to help prevent this. i would also add i think it's very unfortunate that we have that situation where this is

supposed to be a relationship of trust between a student and teacher, and when the trust is violated it's by making themville feel victimized by their teacher and also impacts the likelihood of them reporting the instances of bullying. that's also a broader problem where, as well know with hate crimes and being underreport when this happens with teachers doing this to students, there's also underreporting as well. ... have a huge responsibility, and it is seems that terrorism and im in grations are used as weapons. is there anything being done in the u.s., to change of the

narrative, for people who are muslims, in the media? >> we are trying to engage the media. >> in the lgbt community there's people who are working with the media, and i feel like there's a huge opportunity here. >> i think that there are a number of concerted efforts, both within the zika american community, and the mainstream narrative is so large and so robust and i think there are a number of smaller things that we can do as individuals to reach out. but, you know, the sikh

coalition has decided for our 15th anniversarirks we are launching a free open to the public photography exhibit in new york city that displays about 38 beautiful images of the sikh turbine and their wonderful sikh american stories. you have the fabric of the sikh american stories and there will be a lot of media and press around that. so, i think there is, there is so much crisis response, that's required right now on behalf of our communities, a disproportionate amount of resources are being put in the firefighting interventions. >> yeah. so, i would say on two levels.

we, we're not impacting the media directly but when we see bias, and some of the narrative, to the extent that we can, we speaking out about it. we're a civil riots organization. and teachers are hungering, for having these conversations with young people, looking at the media and thinking critically about it. that's one way young people can have an impact on it. so, they don't just take it all in, and just believe everything they hear and take in the bias. so we work really hard at helping to deacon strublght that, in some of our resources. so i think that's important too, in terms of schools. >> okay, i've been told i'm allowed to take one more question. >> thank you. i just wanted to answer one of the previous questions, add a comment about educating teachers, by the community members.

i'm talking on behalf of sikh kids, five or six student, from the -- maryland, and virginia who are here. our organization came about two years ago after the wisconsin shootings, and, why we came about was just to protect the students, that were feeling that they were not to want go into their house of worship. when we approached the coordinator and we would like to see it, and it is not eastern being recognized as the fifth largest religion again. so, she was very kind and she allowed us to present our materials to her and, of course, our, there was another organization who also was working with them, and we also proposed to her that we would,

as community members would like to educate the teachers, in montgomery county. she invited us to a resource fair and after that, we have done four workshops. and we have done it for the counselors. the last workshop we worked with the hindu foundation and we have been teaching on hindu i., and, sikh, and, there's primary and then a lesson planning for the teachers. and, so it's been very successful. this past june there was a work shop the the state of maryland approved a sikh religion, 45 hours and credits for the teachers. for one week. we had this workshop in june, people from all over the country were there to present about all the sikh religion.

so i wanted to say, yes, as a community we need to be more ukive. people on the other side, are very receptive to this. and i i wanted to let everyone, our materials are there, and a lot of information is on our websites and we would love to work with people. the student, are working with teachers. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> it sounds like you guys should connect, because it sounds like have you a lot of great resources and you have seen positive results. >> i'm allowed one more question and then that's it. >> thank you. i work here at the department. i received some of the international programs. one quick comment, for educators, the department invests in the title 6 programs, you may be familiar with them for international education.

there's 100 national resource centers. 14 are related to middle east and nine south issue a airasia shavment so there will be resources and they do teacher work shops. go online and find where it is, and i'll be around and direct you as well. >> michigan state has a number of them. my question for you, one of the notes that you put on the slide was related to sue what side dal tendencies, on your i slide. >> what kind of data do you have that it can flult homicide dal behavior, did you see it, for all groups who have been bullied. for lgbt and, jewish students.

or it was just muslim students. that the tends to go back to the far atism thank you. >> so, i based it, mainly on all the students, i'm talking about all students, not one religion again. so what we did was, the campus shootings if you go to their profile, or mass shooters or any kind of mass violence you will go back and bullying stands out, trauma, being exposed to trauma, or violence. these are three main risk areas, that we do see with the common thread and it is not restricted to one relen general or one community. when when you get that to the level it is easy trig ghiorse.

we have toxic male situations, if you are a male, and you are very angry, and you are isolated and depressed, or you are becoming suicidal you tend to act it out towards others. that's where that came from. >> thanks. my colleague has been texting me about the time and questions. thank you. i didn't know, do we have to be back by 2:45? >> okay. you do have a break. thank you so much. >> we'll take a short break and i'll give you guys, until 2:50, so we'll do the break out

sessions. just to reiterate. leverage, resources to prevent bullying, is in 1w.114. what happens when a fed and a physician join forces? that's in room 1w.103. there's a lot of excitement and she's happy to answer any questions about it. the discussion about bullying, based on gender, and sexual orientation will take place here. bullying against muslim, ar arab, and, sikh. >> you will be in 1w., 126. >> and then, supports, for student wes disabilities. so, please, note that the last

the two just flipped. thank you. and we'll see you all at 2:50. >> these and the morning sessions will be aviable our website, c-span.org. a group called the fight for 15 holds its first-ever nationwide convention. workers, will call for the

raising of the minimum wage to $15. we'll have live coverage starting at 5 p.m. eastern time. our road to the white house coverage continuing on c-span with donald trump. during the short break, here's some of the earlier discussions. >> i'm going to get started. please take your seats and that way we can hear the panelists. this is entitled, federal legal responses to harassment and bullying. i'm going to turn it over to veronica, and in the civil rights decision. >> good morning. can you hear me okay? >> yeah. i think there was some trouble. all right.

so, i'm here from the justice department. i'm in the educational opportunity, which is within the civil rights division. the goals, of our section is to ensure equal educational opportunities for all students. just like a lot of people in this room the goals are to support school's efforts to promote respect, tolerance and appreciation of diversity, to increase safety and to help students stay in school. the way that we can do that as governments is to ensure that the institutions, meet their obligations to prevent, and address discrimination. wewe collaborate with the other agencies, that are working to achieve these goals. the u.s. department of education. most frequent licks which has regional offices, across the

country and i'll let my panel talk about that. we work with local u.s. attorney's offices across the country, in the districts where the schools that will we're working in are located. it's been helpful. we also work with equity centers, some of you are familiar with. our jurisdiction relates to harassment, that is on the basis of some protected class. so, we enforce federal civil rights laws. many okay. i think it went out for a second. no problem. >> there are a number of statutes that prevent disminimum iation. race, color, sex, disability and religion.

relevant to the topic today, bullying, is harassment, if it is based on one of these protected classes. so, some of the laws that we enforce, title 4 of the civil rights act of 1964, d o.j., and my division has the full authority to enforce title 4, there's no private right of action. it prohibits discrimminnation, on the basis of race, color and sex and relen again. >> we enforce title ix. >> it is different than a public school. and, the a.d. a. which prohibits, exclusion on the basis of disability. we don't always get involved in case he is.

we only get involved in case he is that come to our attention that meet the legal standard for equitable relief. it rises to a level that would warrant some court granded remedy, and that would require a party to act or refrain from acting. it's different from a lawsuit. >> our focus asks on the actions and responses of the school officials. we of course, have to assess the underlying conduct of the students, to see if it's severe or, to trigger our jurisdiction, but we don't focus on the actions of the individual students. so, what happens, is, if we look

into a case, we find that there was harassing contact. we'll look for three things. the first is whether the conduct was sufficiently see rear, persistent for deny the ability to participate in the educational program. the second is we look to determine whether the school district knew should have known about the conduct that was occurring. finally, whether the school district failed to take appropriate action to stop the harassment. and limit it, and, remedy the situation and to prevent it. but that's the things that is we looked at. how did we get involved? cases come to our attention, in a couple of ways. we might receive a direct complaint, a phonecall or e-mail

and we often receive referrals from other doj divisions or the department of education. can you look at this case for us? sometimes, there's a private lawsuit that's filed that implicate he is one of the statutes that we enforce. and other times there might be a news article, something that draws our attention, that implicates the laws we enforce. and then we do outreach we learn about problems to see if there's anything that we can do to help. so, look at the different ways that cases would come to our attention. when they do, we don't always get involved. we receive hundreds, of citizen complaints each year. sometimes we just lack jurisdiction, and we let them know that. and we refer complaints to other

parts of the civil rights division or other federal agencies. but when we do get involved we do so in a number of ways. we almost always will conduct an investigation which means, we're going to interview witnesses, meaning students, administrators and teachers, and families. we often will request documents and do a document review to better understand what's going on in the school. and sometimes, we will file a federal complaint, in court, seeking equitable relief. that may be to the enforcement, noaftion of enforceable court order. so, i'll give you an example, there was a case in minnesota, and there was a private suit that was filed alleging that

multiple lgbt students were being harassed. they had made, we negotiated, with the school district, with the court's oversight. it requires, among many other things that the district modify its policies around lgbt students. that it hire a consultant to help with training. and that they set up an anti-bullying, task force. the agreement was put in place for five years, which means for five years, my section,

including myself monitored the implementation, spend a lot of time, visiting with add administrators and make sure they are in full compliance and to see how the climate is in the school district. so that's one route that we can get involved. the other is to do something very similar but do it out of court. so that first one, that's something if there's a problem we go to the court. it's enforceable. there are times that we negotiate out of court settlements. there was a case, in georgia, we negotiated an out of court agreement resolving allegations that we had received, of religion gust and national or a again after sikh student.

the student was disciplined more severely, than a white student. the complaint alleged that there had been repeated incidents of harassment targeting the sikh student and, things that were clearly based on his religion, including allegations that the student had been called aladdin aladdin -- >> so i'm thrilled to be here, with such great pannell lists and i'll talk about an issue near and dear to my heart.

most licks just, but i did chase to want make you aware, that yesterday the c.d.c. released data, the -- >> the sexual contacts, and health related behavior. very exciting for us. the first time we're publishing data, that includes lgbt identities. i think, i'm not going to go into depth, but it does confirm what many of us have been talking about, in terms of the health disparry it that we're seeing. so, really excited, and i'm going to let the panel briefly introduce themselves and turn it over to nathan smith. >> good afternoon. is this working?

>> i'm fine here. direct ter health and wearness for dc public schools. so, if you are not from dc, welcome. ournazation's capital, soon to be the 51st state, depends on what you call soon. >> we serve almost 50,000 students across 110 schools, throughout the district. more than 15% of our high school students, identify as lesbian,

or gay or questioning, and 6% identify as lesbian, gay -- and another 8 as questioning. we haven't mastered the t. question yet. >> i we're sea all of the programs, with the department of health, and our school base health centers and medication access to more targeted programs such as our programs for expectant students and all of our work with lgbt students and i say, it is shorthand, as soon

as we started our work, back in 2010 we started doing some session wes parents and families and students, and staff, and add main straight tors and found very quickly, that we could start with our students and, we have to end with our students. that's why we work. >> it is also, a bit after shorthand because a lot of our work is inclusive of the lgbt community. so in 2001 we developed a plan to create an incluive school community and it is like our plan. so, i was really, into plans and i have been a board president. so i worked with a committee,

steering committee that we formed, in 2011 and continued to run today, and we meet to follow how we're doing, in implementing our plan. it laid out a framework and a vision for our school district to go when it came to building programs that were more incompleusive, whether it is supportive, of our programs. so we can talk about those specific successes that we have had. and then, more recently we spent a lot of our time, is around our transgender policy guidance. i'm i'll probably talk about a lot of successes there for our transstudents, and, also for all

of our students. because this conversation is about sexual orientation and gender identity. but, when we de segregate, we make it more inclusive for everyone. i'll pass for now. >> i'm director of public policy. some of you might be familiar with the organization. but we're a national organization working to create safe school environments, for all students. we are based in new york city. but our staff makeup, several departments, that focus on different areas of the work. one is, our research department that every two years puts out

survey of lgbt students across the country called the national school climate survaivment we've been doing that for over ten years. we're starting to get a look at the lines and i'm going to talk, specifically about our most recent school climate survey. things are getting better, very slowly. so there's still a lot of work left to do. beyond research we have education youth programs that work with students and educators across the country and create things like lgbt curricula, the national day of silence, which is a popular student organizing program. we have field services team that works with our chapter network of 38 chapters. our chapters have a lot of you a townmy. and, many work with students and educators.

we have the public policy department that works on federal, sight and local levels, to pur policies that are supportive of lgbt students. so, i'll come back and talk more about the research, that what found to set the stage for what it looks like. >> can everyone hear me? >> i am a attorney based out of virginia and i serve on thenable leadership council, after two years serving as a staff member. during my time, i serve as their primary point person on lgbt issues. i come differently, in that i

don't primarily work on lgbt issues. it's an issue that's very close to my heart it's part of a framework of larger issues that we address including the reduction of "hate crimes" dealing with the bullying of hindu and other students in public schools dealing with educational equity and other issues. other issues involving the hindu american community. so, what i would like to be talking about later, is focusing on specifically, i will probably take the discussion away from the data points, that, my colleagues will be offering and focus on members of the lgbt who identify as members of the hindu community and what are specific challenges. and any take aways we can draw

on how to make sure that our anti lgbt bullyingerses are including it from all communities. >> i am the founder, i'm an upcoming junior, and againer, we aim to provide support in our school, for lgbt and we talk to administration and we hold events. a few months ago we add picnic that was for the entire county and we had over 100 attendees. 60 people, which is a which is a high large percent.

it's an honor to represent the transcommunity and lgbt and students. thanks. >> i'll jump back in. so, i think one of the things we want deed, before we got into that broader discussion is set the stage is what is climate like right now? again, the national school climate survey, it's available on our website, and it has, it's pretty long and looks at a variety of different factors. spend a minute, or a couple of the statistics. and as they reflect on bullying, and harassment. the bottom-line is that school

climate nationwide is hostile. it's tough. 56% of lgbt students, reported feeling unsafe in school because of their sexual orientation. 38 because of gender and 30%, missed one day of school because they felt unsafe and didn't feel comfortable going to school. another third avoided gender spaces while they were at school. most reported missing school functions or participating in extracurricular activities, because they felt unsafe. bullying and harassment is a frequent and common experience across the country 74% of lgbt students reported they have been harassed, because of their sexual orientation and 55%

because of their gender preference and 36% were physically harassed. and 23% because of their gender expressing. 17% were physically assaulted, at school because of their sexual orientation and 11% because of their gender expressing. >> 57% of the students, reported that they did not report incidents to school staff. many of them reported, that if they had, staff would not have done anything. those who did report, 62% of the time, 62% of those who reported an incident, the staff did nothing response. so over half of the students, who told a teacher, reported that that teacher didn't do

anything. >> i should note here, doesn't follow-up with the school so we don't know for sure that it wasn't responded to. the student reported that they didn't feel like it was responded to. so if we talk about feelings of safety and school climate, if there was a response it didn't get back to the student. >> for consequences, we know, you often hear, yesterday, and today, people have referred to it as you often hear people say it's a right of passage and it has severe consequences. q.higher levels, of victimization resulted in 3 students, who were likely to miss school. those students had lower

g.p.a.s, and not pursue college. and they had higher levels of depression and lower self-esteem. >> so we know the consequences are large, and that's a sample of it. and feeling connected to school, and participating in extracurricular activities. i wanted to, before we get intos conversation about what we can do about this, elliott mentioned that yesterday, the data, was released. and this was the first time that sexual identity and by heavier were included. that's great. >> there's data points. this only is asked of -- this is only lgbt students, this does

not include transgender students. so some of the stats that i thought were most compelling is greater than 40% of lgbt students, considered suicide and almost 30% attempted suicide in the past year. 60% reported being sad or hopeless that they stopped doing some usual activities. and, five times were more likely to report using several illegal drugs than non lgbt students. and i should mention that often, situations affecting lgbt students, they're involved in situations that you don't think of. things like sexual violence and assault, and that was uncovered in the youth risk question. 18% of lgbt students reported, that they had been forced to have sex compared to 5% and 23%

were victims of sexual violence compared to 9% of non lgbt students. so, sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but i think the rest, a lot of rest of the discussion will focus on some of the ways that we can work to address some of these situations, and, make the situation better for lgbt students and schools. >> thank you. toiment say thank you. for all that you do to make sure people understand. can you hear me? okay. great. >> sorry, about the mike situation. way before many of the federal

service has been able to start asking questions, he's been painting the picture of the national landscape of what our youth are experiencing in schools. to your point, about it, something that i'm struck by is the studies range between 2 and 11 times lgbt people are more likely to be involved in unattendedded pregnancy. that's important. yeah, i'm going to use that mike. that works better. okay. >> this is much better. so, the numbers are important. they also help us share the story with people who haven't been following issues. more importantly, i think it's important we are centering the voice of student. so i wanted to turn it over to james.

if you could share your experiences in school. what are you seeing? how have you started to overcome them? >> thank you. yeah, i really appreciate the focus on student testimony. it is very important. because we are at the forefront. we are in the schools experiencing these things. i wanted to mention that i learned a -- i learned a lot of things while i have been here. but specific licks when they were talking about, tolerance and inclusion in our schools there was a lot of talk about transgender related bullying, and i thought i knew all about, because i am trans. there was a comment made that even quick comments like as i

have heard, is that a girl or boy does soon toot as bullying, and saying that, was affirming, because i have heard that multiple times. i never thought that i should report it. so hearing that was very nice. but, moving on,. >> we want to learn but what we return into, is that teempers, almost have their own agenda. so, in my g.s.a. we formed, because of the lack of support,

when we gather for meetings, all 60 of us we just talk about what's happened to us and what steps we can take. so the lgbt student comoontsty has come together to solve their own problems. it mat tears lot. from middle school, it was different from when i came in and out high school. in middle school, there are less instances of trans-people. doesn't mean to say that there are -- there are me and other people. but, they are not coming out as much. so, i was told, that, he had never heard after trans-person and that he had googled it. so i was called to the office. like i was in trouble. it was all out of the blue. i had come out to my friends and the office wanted to see me.

so i went and they were like, we heard your transgender. we looked it up. and now we know what it means. oh, my gosh. i'm only twelve. you're going to be the first trans-kid. that's awful. because to hear that i'm the first person to be like me is scary because i was their guinea pig. so teachers, it's good to be upfront about what you don't know and do know. it's not good at that level. also, bullying, with teachers, they share too much information, speaking, about the trans-community. there's a lot of confident alley broaches. i was outed to they said they

were doing it in favor of my safety. it didn't work. what we see is teachers say it is unsafe for kids to come out, they think that they should control our experiences and coming out. the differences between teachers, perception, and student, is very large. the student population is so much more accepting. so, in the experience of my g.s.a., talking to our teachers is harder than our students. there's so much to say. the g.s.a. serves as an educational resource for our teachers. and also our students. so we hold trainings because so much of the bullying is grounded in ignorance. and when we have that knowledge

we can usually come to an understanding. it's just difficult for trans-students because as the data reflects we're not often reported on. so teachers have no idea what to do with us. that was lot. thank you. >> do you want share about the work that you do and some of the more challenging work that you do? >> let me start off, that, what i'm going to be talking about are based on my own experiences and my own communications with the community, that individuals have told me. some of these stories are in confidence. i am not going to reveal names and places. anything that i'm going to talk about is relatedded to hindu

community. i don't think it's unique. many go through very similar experiences. it's just that they are not the ones that i have talked to. so, the hindu community remains one of the most i wouldn't say misunderstood, but they don't know a lot about. it's still an immigrant. first and second generation. i guess, take a step back. many of you know this, it is a religion that originated in the continent, and the vast majority, over a billion are based out of india, and they are over 3 million. it's one of the fastest growing

religions here. as a result of both immigration and a thriving second and third generation, you have a lot more students in schools. earlier this year, the hindu american foundation conducted a bullying report, and this is available at ha f.s.a. t..org. >> one of the takeaways was that the vast majority, is largely driven by curriculum and teachers. again this is not necessarily implied that the teachers want to do this. the way it is taught and the way the students are often singled out, it detrimental to those

students and can lead to bullying. about 15 years ago, i was a student in schools. i remember one day my teacher in our social studies class asked me to give a presentation on my cast and i didn't understand -- i didn't know what my cast was. and, putting me on the spot like that, immediately signaled to everyone else that i was different. p when you have the added pressure of being a member of the lgbt community regardless of whether you are out, it adds an entirely -- another layer of stress. another layer of bullying. i think the second issue which hindu lgbt students struggle with, they don't, necessarily