Safe Schools Forum to Address Equality, Bullying.

Monday, November 2 from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. is the East Central Illinois Safe Schools Initiative (eCISSA) Making Our Schools Safe for LGBTQ Students Forum. The forum will be held at Parkland Community College and is open to the public at no cost.

Urbana High School is offering a bus to the forum for free. To take the bus you must fill out a permission slip which you can get from numerous teachers, including Ms. Dahlke, English teacher.

The Safe Schools Forum will host a variety of speakers and includes a question and answer period. The speakers include local students, recent graduates, mental health experts and school personnel, two of whom are Urbana High School’s own Senior Kendall Johnson and Principal Laura Taylor.

Johnson encourages all students to go. “I’d like for everyone who attends to realize the importance of safer schools in our area and know that they aren’t perfect,” he said.

The event will address the lack of GSAs at some schools, lack of administrative support and the hardships of LGBTQ students in and out of school.  UHS’s GSA and Social Justice Committee will be represented at the event, but students that are not involved in either of the groups are encouraged to come, as well.