Gay and transgender students are commonly victims of harassment and bullying in school. Studies have estimated that as many as  80 percent  of transgender youth experience bullying, and this mistreatment is one of the greatest predictors of behavioral and emotional problems among these kids. 82 percent  of gay and lesbian students report similar bullying. 31 percent  of LGBT students  say  that their schools do nothing about it.

The U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos also plans to do nothing, when it comes to anti-LGBT policies in schools receiving federal funding. During yesterday’s Congressional testimony, US Rep. Katherine Clark (D-Massachusetts) asked DeVos about Indiana’s  Lighthouse Christian Academy. The school receives over $665,000 in school vouchers. The school also states  in its handbook  that if a student is from a home  in which a “homosexual lifestyle” or “alternate gender identity” is practiced,  that the student can be denied admission or expelled.

Rep. Clark then asked Secretary DeVos if she would step in and require the school to eliminate its discriminatory policy in order to receive federal funding. After several attempts to avoid the question, DeVos ultimately answered that she would not. A video of her testimony is available here.

Pediatricians, psychiatrists, and psychologists (with a few extreme exceptions) have been working tirelessly to improve the health of LGBT youth. They  have spent countless hours working with schools to make them safer for these students. As school climates improved, we started to see students thrive. One transgender 13-year-old girl I worked with has straight A’s, was in her school play, and is already thinking about college. Gay and lesbian students are valedictorians, varsity team captains, and class presidents.

If we’ve learned one thing about LGBT youth, it’s that when we take away the bullying and rejection, these kids succeed. The Lighthouse Academy, by refusing to accept these students, is bullying and rejecting. It is the job of the Secretary of Education to do everything she can to end this bullying so that these students can thrive. Secretary DeVos refuses to accept this responsibility.

We know that when a family rejects a child’s LGBT identity, it can increase the risk of suicide almost 20 percent. I’m afraid of what will happen when the head of our national’s education system does the same.

Jack Turban’s writing on  neuroscience  and children’s mental health has appeared in  The New York Times, Scientific American, The Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, and Kevin MD  among others. Find him on  Twitter  @jack_turban or online at jackturban.com. 

PLEASE never give up on educating our educators!