Today, I attended the first annual summit on Creating Safer Schools to Improve School Outcomes for LGBTQ Youth. I would first like to thank all of the organizers for making the event happen, it was quite a success and I look forward to attending (or helping out) next year!

This summit was co-sponsored by Equality Cincinnati, Equality Ohio, the Human Rights Campaign, The Family Violence Prevention Project, the Council on Child Abuse, Centerpoint Health Centers, GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network), and Miami University's Center for School-Based Mental Health Programs. As you can see, quite a few organization worked hard to have this event, and the superior quality was apparent!

I would like to thank all of the presenters as well. To highlight just a few, I would first like to thank Ed Mullen, the Executive Director of Equality Ohio. He is a very busy man and his presence was very much appreciated. Thanks, also, to Kristin Shrimplin, who was an instrumental organizer for the summit. I would also like to thank the three high school students who sat on the student panel, who showed great courage and pride in being able to share their experiences. A special thanks also goes out to GLSEN who certified all of the attendees as LGBTQ Safe Sites.

This summit was intended for school-age youth educators and administrators (aka: High School and Middle School teachers/principals/guidance counselors/etc.). I attended in order to be in the loop on what is being taught to our educators, as well as being able to network for future organizing efforts. Here, I will summarize what was said and discuss the main points.

Firstly, they fed us, which is always good. Since the event started at 8 am, they had a bunch of food choices.

Secondly, Kristin Shrimplin (the Director of the Family Violence Prevention Project) opened the summit with inspiring words about why this summit is needed. She discussed the recent suicides of LGBTQ students as well as how students are affected by their school environment. She also thanked the other organizers and mentioned that this is the first annual summit and that this will be continuing next year.

Thirdly, the representative from GLSEN Cincinnati showed a couple videos about local high-schoolers who had experienced bullying in their school or were thankful to GLSEN for helping them overcome hardships in their lives.

Fourthly, Ed Mullen (the Executive Director of Equality Ohio) gave a quick 'LGBTQ 101' lesson, which just describes the basic foundations of what all is present when discussing the LGBTQ community. Then he gave the second half of his speech entitled 'Strengthening Ohio's Anti-Bullying Law Policy Update', where he discussed the current state of Ohio's Anti-Bullying laws and where he would like to see laws in the future. Basically, he said that many states mandate that schools include terms like 'sexual orientation', 'gender identity', or 'gender expression' in the anti-bullying policy for the school. Ohio, however has a 'recommended model policy' which is just a suggestion to school districts, but that the districts don't have to adopt this policy. Sadly, because all the speakers were on a short time limit, he was only given 30 minutes, which wasn't enough time to really go in-depth on these issues. I would love to hear him talk for longer.

Fifthly, Andrew Winters (MSW, LISW-S, HRC Board Member & Family Access to Integrated Recovery Coordinator) spoke on the legal issues surrounding bullying. He discussed legislation that is currently on the table and how they would affect bullying prevention.

Sixthly, Dr. Cricket Meehan and Amy Wilms (from the Miami University's Center for School-Based Mental Health Programs) discussed the research behind why bullying is problematic, emphasizing on the health effects on LGBTQ students. There was also a call-to-action for the attendees to be the driving force in changing these stats for the better and making schools safer.

Seventhly, Eve Pearl (Executive Director of the Council on Child Abuse) facilitated a youth panel of three local high-schoolers in local districts. Eve asked them a set of pre-made questions about their school situation. Then they opened up the questions to audience-members. Their insight was invaluable. My only critique is that I would have liked to have seen a larger panel. Of course, in the short amount of time, it is difficult, but I felt that two of the three had not really experienced bullying so I would have liked to have heard more personal bullying experiences so that we could have brainstormed ways to prevent it from happening again. Again, thank you to those panelists for being courageous and willing to let us into their lives.

Lastly, all the presenters came back up to the front, and the floor was open for questions to anyone. There weren't many questions.

After the summit was over, I stayed around and joined in on random conversations. I made some new friends and business contacts with who I am excited to work with in the near future!

The first annual summit for Creating Safer Schools to Improve School Outcomes for LGBTQ Youth was a resounding success and I learned a lot. I know that the audience-members did as well. I was happy to see a lot of networking among attendees as well, so the conversation will not end at the conclusion of the summit, but be an issue that develops in their minds. Just as the issues of bullying and LGBTQ youth are important to teachers, it is important to all of us. We have all been in (or are currently in) a high school or another place where bullying can occur, so understanding the details and sensitivities to intercultural youth is important.

For more information, please visit the websites for any of the organizations listed above.