The Education Minister is to launch a new anti-homophobic and transphobic bullying resource for primary schools later.
It has been put together by the Irish National Teachers Organisation, their LGBT Teachers' Group and the Gay Lesbian Equality Network.
Director of Education Policy Change at GLEN is Sandra Irwin-Gowran.
She says this will equip teachers with what they need to tackle the problem:
Last week, the principal of an all-boys secondary school in Dublin refused to allow an anti-homophobic bullying seminar to take place in his school this morning, claiming: “Both sides of the argument need to be represented.”
Finín Máirtín, principal of Coláiste Eoin in Booterstown, Dublin, cancelled the workshop, despite the fact the same discussion had been included as part of the school’s transition year programme in 2012 and 2013.
ShoutOut, a voluntary organisation which offers free workshops on LGBT issues to secondary schools nationwide, said it was left baffled by the last-minute decision.
The group, which was co-founded by a former pupil of Coláiste Íosagáin - the all-girls sister school of Coláiste Eoin - was then told by Mr Máirtín that, “both sides of the argument need to be represented,” and that he wished to make no further comment.
It emerged that some parents had raised concerns about the workshop.
