Friday, October 21, 2011
Students come to ETHS’s Gay-Straight Alliance for a variety of reasons. Some seek a safe space among friendly faces, others a way to pursue LGBTQ activism. But can the student organization be everything to everyone?
The final installment of a three-part report on LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning) issues at Evanston Township High School. It was a cold Monday in mid-December and the winds were whipping snow drifts around the Evanston Township High School building at face-numbing speeds. Almost no one wanted to go outside. Ten minutes after the school day’s final bell, a small group of students began shuffling into chemistry teacher Bill Farmer’s spacious third floor classroom, chatting, gossiping and giggling as they entered about who did what, how much homework they had and anything else that a high school teen idly talks over. But as they crossed the threshold into Farmer’s classroom, they were also entering a space …
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Evanston Township High School (ETHS)
1600 Dodge Ave, Evanston, IL
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Wednesday, October 19, 2011
For some ETHS students, gay slurs are viewed as casual conversation, not to be taken seriously. Others think that language plays a much more important role in the acceptance of LGBTQ students.
Part two of a three-part report on LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning) issues at Evanston Township High School. “I don’t mean it like that,” said the talkative sophomore, standing among a group of three friends on the sidewalk near Evanston Township High School’s main entrance only minutes after the day’s final bell. “I’m not saying it to someone gay, and I’m not saying that the dude is gay. I don’t care. It’s just like, dude, you’re a faggot.” His friends laughed. One nodded his head in agreement. "Faggot" is just a word, said the student, who declined to provide his name. An insult you might casually toss at a friend or aim at someone during a dispute. He doesn’t hate gay people, he said. To him, that’s not …
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
The training was a first step toward educating faculty on how to become allies for LGBTQ students, but some attendees said they learned little of the skills they need.
This story is part one of a three-part report on LGBTQ issues at Evanston Township High School. For the first time in over a decade, Evanston Township High School faculty received LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning) sensitivity training at this year’s August Institute Days teacher development sessions, held Aug. 24 and 25. The 90-minute forum split time between a large group seminar and small group discussions, both principally aimed at encouraging teachers to reassess their classroom environments to identify and address language, behaviors, and educational materials that might make LGBTQ students feel hurt, uncomfortable or ostracized. “The focus was creating allies out of faculty members,” said Bill Farmer, …
42.04705
-87.699029
Evanston Township High School (ETHS)
1600 Dodge Ave, Evanston, IL
/articles/eths-holds-first-lgbtq-sensitivity-training-in-a-decade
262002
/locations/5614962
Emma Milliken
10:31 pm on Sunday, October 23, 2011
This seems a little outdated, given that you visited the club almost a year ago and I hear the group is rather different now. more ›