Quote Originally Posted by Tock
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Some of these kids ooze with "gayness" and in some schools end up getting beat up by bullies or otherwise hassled by school administrators on a regular basis. Then they refuse to go to school, period, 'cause they don't want to deal with the abuse.

The right way to fix this problem is to eliminate the abuse, but that's usually easier said than done. There's a private high school here in Dallas where they've got 30-something kids with horror stories to tell from their time in public school. The school district evidently tried to make life easier for these kids, but they can't watch over 'em all the time. Eventually, it became too much of a hassle for 'em, and they either refused to go back to public school, or pleaded for an alternative, or etc.

Pretty much, it's tough to be different, especially when you're an effeminate teenage boy in a hyper-macho environment. Hell, most of y'all know what it's like to be considered "strange" or "weird;" but you're able to fend for yourself if anyone gets too belligerant. Imagine some idiot pounding on you for being different (I've known gay guys who've gotten raped by straight guys--nothing more than sick abuse) and you NOT being able to defend yourself against 5 or 6 other guys.
It happens.

Yeah, you'd think with enough security, the schools could keep problems like this from cropping up. I don't know why they've opted to segregate the gay kids; maybe they decided it would be cheaper to keep 'em in a safe place rather than risk getting sued for not adequately protecting the kids. I dunno. The whole thing sucks (figuratively speaking), and the solution isn't much to my liking either. But I'm sure the NYC school district is open to any good ideas anyone might come up with.
--Tock
agreed, this mirrors my feelings.

there was a gay teenage boy in my high school that was ruthlessly and relentlessly tormented. there's no way for the school to protect this type of student 100% of the time. this has to be considered a hostile environment, and not very conducive for learning. as Tock implied, it's likely cheaper to create a "safe" school for these students than to deal with lawsuits resulting from the abuses these kids suffer while attending normal public schools.