Challenging Classroom Prejudice

New Zealand-born teacher Suran Dickson, 34, felt moved enough to leave her job and launch Diversity Role Models, a charity which tackles the worrying incidence of homophobic bullying in British schools, where terms such as “gay boy” and “homo” are playground missiles of choice. The Guardian’s Hugh Muir asked Dickson where these attitudes came from. Mostly their parents, Dickson said. During her 12 years in north London schools, Dickson has been offering teacher friends informal advice on tackling homophobic bullying. She has also visited schools to speak about her life as a gay woman. She said she had been shocked by the prejudices of some pupils. In one class “when I said I was gay one pupil moved away from me. He thought it was contagious and all gay people had Aids.” Dickson takes inspirational role models into classrooms to challenge children’s stereotypes about gay people. The workshops aim to take the pressure off teachers who may feel uncomfortable dealing with the issue: “It’s tough. Initially in these lessons there’s a lot of negativity. These lessons can save lives,” she said.