A safe space is created by school communities - parents, teachers, and students. Such a space should be available to everyone - Dominik Kuc of the GrowSPACE foundation told TVN24 on Friday (Oct. 27). Approx. 100 schools across Poland celebrated the annual "Rainbow Friday" to support LGBT+ pupils.
The "Rainbow Friday" initiative aims to create a safe environment for LGBTQ+ youth and express acceptance of the whole school community. Dominik Kuc of the GrowSPACE foundation spoke about the initiative in TVN24 on Friday.
"Safe space is not purely and simply a physical place - although indeed the "Rainbow Friday" is organized in schools - but such safe space is created by school communities, namely parents, teachers, and students," he explained.
He stressed that "a safe space should be available to everyone in Polish schools, regardless of sexual identity, regardless of psychosexual orientation".
Kuc: Polish schools have a systemic response
Kuc added that students "unfortunately very often experience violence from their peers". "The scale in Polish schools is that one in three persons in Polish schools experienced peer violence at least once. This not only includes physical or psychological violence, but also cyberviolence, and relational bullying," he explained.
"On the other hand, young LGBTQ+ persons are at higher risk of such states as minority stress, or suicidal thoughts. 70 percent of LGBTQ+ youth experienced such thoughts at least once. And this is an alarm bell so that Polish schools could have a systemic response to that," Kuc underscored.
Źródło: TVN24 News in English, TVN24
Źródło zdjęcia głównego: TVN24