Anti-gay violence in NSW schools
By Karen Fredericks
SYDNEY — The NSW Gay and Lesbian Teachers and Students Association (GaLTaS) has welcomed the introduction of state legislation prohibiting vilification of homosexuals, but says that it will remain toothless as long as private schools and churches are exempt from it and other human rights legislation.
GaLTaS co-convener Derek Williams says the organisation's SchoolWatch Report on homophobic violence and vilification shows that the situation in private and church-run schools is extremely serious.
"Students from a private Catholic school, St Mary's, are in prison for murdering a homosexual man [Richard Johnson]", he told Green Left. "At another Catholic school in Wollongong, a gay student was told by his teacher that 'Gays deserve to be bashed', and at the same school a gay student was thrown into a rubbish tin.
"At another Catholic school a student thrown down a flight of stairs sustained broken bones. At two other Catholic schools, an Anglican school in Sydney and a Christian school in Coffs Harbour, students have been expelled by their headmaster because they identified as homosexual. Two Catholic headmasters have instructed the school counsellor to report any students confiding their homosexuality so that they could be removed from the school."
One hundred and forty people — 47 students, 65 teachers and 28 trainee teachers — have been interviewed for the SchoolWatch report so far.