GLBT Office sponsors film on bullying

As he stood before the court, Jamie Nabozny described being beaten, degraded and urinated on by fellow students during his years in middle and high school. Dubozny was brutally bullied for being gay, and his story is the focus of the documentary “Bullied: A Student, a School and a Case that Made History.”

On Thursday, the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Student Support Services Office sponsored a showing and discussion of the film in Read Center.

Assistant Director for Diversity Education Barry Magee said the film was purchased by the GLBT office, which sponsors movies on campus as a prelude to the PRIDE Film Festival which will run at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater from Thursday to Sunday.

Magee explained that the festival’s organizers also look for films that might not fit the festival but would be educationally impacting when shown on campus.

“We keep an eye on movies that are good or entice or demand discussion,” Magee said.

The discussion of “Bullied” was led by Bill Shipton, associate director of Residence Life for Diversity Education. Although the film focused on abuse in high school, Shipton said IU is not without its share of bias-motivated attacks.

Shipton serves on the TRUST incident team, which is responsible for addressing bias-motivated incidents on campus. He handles everything from offensive slurs written on residents’ white boards to verbal altercations.

Bias-motivated incidents are reported to the TRUST team, and actions are taken only if the reporting student or staff member desires it. Shipton said the incident teams receive anywhere from 40 to 60 reports a year.

Since coming to IU, Shipton said he’s seen an improvement in student awareness of issues surrounding sexual orientation, multiculturalism and gender bias.

“I think students who come here today have much more exposure to these issues,”
Shipton said.

Yet an examination of the TRUST incident team’s reports shows IU still has room for
improvement.

Many of the incidents involve use of offensive slurs. Students trade words like “faggot” and phrases like “that’s so gay.” On occasion, faculty members are reported for using such offensive language.

Shipton said reports available on TRUST’s website give readers a “flavor” of the incidents reported to the team. All language is included as it was originally reported.

Ashton Melvin said he’s experienced bias on campus. Melvin is an openly gay resident assistant in Ashton Center and like Nabozny, Melvin explained that his high school years were spent in a small rural school where he was bullied because of his
sexual orientation.

He now travels around Bloomington to speak at panels and discussions in IU and high school classrooms. Melvin said education and support from RAs and CommUNITY leaders in the residence halls is strong. Residential Programs and Services offers educational programming, like Thursday’s film screening, and resources for students.

Yet Melvin also said IU experiences more incidents than he expected.

He said while his support system has grown since moving out of rural Indiana, IU has not completely met his expectations.

“People think ‘oh, it’s IU, it’s so diverse,’ and bullying still happens, violence still happens,” Melvin said. “I expected differently coming to IU.”