When the Drama Club Is Not Enough: Lessons from the Safe Schools Program for Gay and Lesbian Students

A special guide addresses a wide range of gay and lesbian issues for concerned students, including promoting self-esteem and being comfortable with one's gay or lesbian identity, coming out, dealing with harassment and personal safety, coping with parental concerns, and more.

In 1989, 30% of youth suicides were committed by homosexual teens, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Among the activists and service providers who were prompted to create outreach programs to gay youth are Jeff Perrotti and Kim Westheimer, coauthors of When the Drama Club Is Not Enough: Lessons from the Safe Schools Program for Gay and Lesbian Students and the founding and current director (respectively) of the Massachusetts Department of Education initiative. They tell of their experiences with supporters, opponents, legislators, faculty, administrators and students, including one high school football team captain who sought the authors' advice on coming out to his team. (They strategized with coaches and administrators, and the captain won his teammates' support.) Numerous accounts and testimonies, not all of them happy, enliven this guide for introducing gay rights protection into schools.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

The authors--founding and current director, respectively, of Massachusetts' pioneering Safe Schools Program for Gay and Lesbian Students--offer an invaluable guide to creating a climate of safety in America's schools for all students who may be regarded as "other." While their context is the singular Massachusetts experience, the lessons shared are universal in their potential applications. Throughout, the authors' voices remain calm and reasoned, and their strategies thoughtful and pragmatic. A chapter aptly titled "Nuts and Bolts," for example, offers stepbystep techniques for forming gay-straight alliances, for using antidiscrimination and antiharassment policies (models are appended), and for working with the media. Other chapters discuss related kinds of discrimination, outline tested strategies for change, and detail techniques for coping with controversy. Numerous anecdotes of students' personal experiences--both negative and positive--enliven and enrich the otherwise straightforward presentation. Although the principal audience for this book will be school administrators and teachers, all caring adults will find it an essential tool for making local schools safe and life-affirming. Michael Cart
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As employees of the Massachusetts Department of Education, Perrotti and Westheimer were challenged to create a program for the state's public schools that would promote a safe and welcoming atmosphere for gay and lesbian students in grades K-12. Working closely with teachers, administrators, students, and community leaders, they developed the Massachusetts Safe Schools Program, which has become a model for other states. As a result of their work as advocates, Perrotti and Westheimer assembled this handbook, featuring the poignant stories and practical strategies they learned along the way. Although this issue is addressed in other books, such as Donovan R. Walling's Open Lives, Safe Schools (Phi Delta Kappa Intl., 1996), this stands out because it focuses not on college students but on elementary through secondary school students and because of the authors' sheer optimism and enthusiasm. As they state in their introduction, "Plenty of scripts tell us what cannot be done. This book is about what can be done." For education, gender, and sociology collections. Kimberly L. Clarke, Univ. of Minnesota Lib., Minneapolis

Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.