Bullying in high schools is nothing new.  However, when school handbooks fail to prohibit bullying, problems can arise.

The Kirkwood High School (KHS) handbook forbids bullying based on race, color, religion, gender, national orientation, ancestry, disability and age, but leaves out any mention of bullying based on sexual orientation.

Many students have suffered because of this seemingly insignificant slip.

According to previous KHS principal Franklin McCallie, students were bullied every day, and some contemplated suicide because of this.

Students attending KHS are tired of this discrimination, and thus formed the Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) to change school policy.

Together GSA gathered 940 signatures on a petition to change the handbook and presented it at a school board meeting last Monday.

Unlike KHS, LHS includes sexual orientation under the bullying section in the handbook.

What’s your opinion about bullying based on sexual orientation.?

“It needs to be stopped.  Even when people are just joking around, it still hurts them in the long run.”

-Lanie Henning, 9

“I don’t think any kind of bullying is all right.  It doesn’t matter what kind it is.’

-Morgan Poisson, 9 

“I think it’s important to include [bullying because of sexual orientation] because it’s something you can offend people with.  So I think it is a form of bullying.”

-Maddie Henning, 10 

“You can’t just bully someone because they believe something different or practice something different than you.  It’s never okay.”

-Elaine Gill, 12