Reported here on NBC 5 Chicago

It is true that experiencing student physical bullying at school may have different effects on a student’s development than experiencing psychological and emotional bullying at the school.

But just because they are different types, this does not imply that each type can not be experienced as trauma.

Schools must be a safe place for every student.

I am very proud of the victims of bullying who become strong advocates for themselves.

But many students will remain silent.

I hope we will one day be successful in supplying enough social workers to student victims of bullying.

All students deserve a chance to develop supported.

And I hope that the children who are bullies — I hope their entire family receives the intervention that is so clearly needed. I hope that obvious fact is not over looked.

We in school leadership roles are doing our best to offer proactive protections to students who are targeted.

Recently, we on the Disney Elementary Local School Council voiced support for more placements of secured and private gender and sex neutral bathrooms at our school.

To me, this is a clear issue. Students of certain identities do not feel comfortable being in the same bathroom of students of identities different than their own.

If a school were built with only he/him bathrooms, we would would all agree that we would have to instantly reconstruct bathrooms to provide safety and comfortable privacy to our she/her students.

And if we built a school with only she/her bathrooms, we would reconstruct bathrooms for the safety and comfortable privacy for our he/him students.

Their genders are seperate they have separate bathrooms.

So if you allow male cis students to be separate from female cis students and female cis students separate from male cis students, why can’t you allow transgenders bathrooms that separate from each of those— as is their request.

A student’s assertion of their identity should not be seen as an encroachment against other students’ comfort and a justification for bullying.

That discomfort pales in comparison to the hurt felt by those bullied; and it is a discomfort that should be addressed.

While we can appropriately respond to actions of bullying, we need to be proactive against bullying foremost.