2010 and CAKE!!

It's not a lie! It's not! It's not! :D

You guys missed out on some nice cake, courtesy of Mrs. Reeves! Mmmmm. And it's rainbow! :D

First meeting of 2010!

Surveys are being counted, and some people were not being serious with the suveys, so some are having to be discarded. The teacher surveys are really good, and informative. Most teachers added comments. :D

Remember the surveys are 100% anonymous. :D

Classroom visits: Maybe this wensday? Mrs. Woods is absent so we don't know for sure. :( Hopefully we will be doing it though!! Mass email if it is or is not, and even if it isn't then it will most indoubtbly be next week.

Fundraising: Community Spare Change jar is going to be in action! :D It will be set up in the counciling office.

T-Shirts: Roughly $8, without tye dye... Red Yellow and Blue will be the only colors bought, off of a website. When we find out how much we need, we will get them!

Design Contest: Requirements! Must have Prism as the main attention grabber, please on front. Fronts and back will be more moolah, but if we want to do it it'll be done. Please make it "pop", make it catchy to the eye. L'Anse Creuse High School North must somehow be included also. Make sure text is at minimum 3-quarters of an inch tall. Please make the design clean, the simpler the better. Friday the 15th is the last day to enter designs!

*Please no Pink Floyd:

*If there is enough room on your design please put what PRISM stands for.

:D

Thanks again to Amber and her mom for the cake!! It was deeeeeeeeelicious!

News!!

Great news today: marriage equality has just passed in Washington, D.C.! :D

...that's pretty much it. So... K bye! :)

December 14th Meeting

There's not a lot to write today... We didn't have much to talk about in Prism.

-One thing to add about classroom visits is that we will be turning the slide into youtube, so there will be a link to youtube. (to place herez :D) Starting after the break, so make sure that you don't have anything to do on wensdays and we'll get them rolling!

-bake sale/fundraing, not much to add... just that it's possibly this Wednesday. :D If we are there will be mass emailing. Plan for wensday!!! :D ~ribbons and bracelets prolly $.50-$1.

-Tshirts blah blah blah... that's kinda eh. We'll talk about it next monday. :D

-Surveys: FINISHED!!! :D Sent to MrJ! Surveys are going to be done sometime sooooooon... :? Survey is ANONOMUSES!! :D (Student - 13 questions-ish)

December 7th Meeting

(Suprisingly when I got home my computer was safe in my room! The screen is fixed and better than ever! :D)

-Classroom Mettings have been canceled until after break, due to this wensday being choir concert/photo club opt, and next wensday dance practice. Sorry about that y'all! -_-

-Fundraising oportuntity bake sale MIGHT be occuring on my birthday (the 16th), and we will be outside the lunch room selling. Bake sale posters are being made by Jubilee, Audrey, and Jessica (aka Navi). The bake sale foods need to be labeled with their contents, (ie/ Contains extreme levels of rainbowey goodness, and peanuts. :D)

-And speaking of posters, new ones for PRISM itself need to be made, for are posters have been lost in the swarm of students. *dramatic sigh* Bring your ideas in on next monday.

-Last but not least, Amber wishes all to send her an email if you have any additions to the PRISM slideshow that we shall be showing during our classroom presentations. Her email is breakdancing_bob@hotmail.com, and please no spamming her. :D A nice LGBT is a great LGBT!

T-t-t-that's all folks!

November 30th

So in first news, the teacher survey is almost done, a total of 9-ish questions. The student survey is done, will be brought in by next monday, possibly, according to Audrey.

This Wensday is canceled, to the classrooms, because of dialogue day.

The presentation was shown today, (for the classrooms), all slides are rainbow and beautiful. :D They make minds explode, in beautification. But all jokes aside... there is some rearranging to be done, mistakes to correct, and the like. All in all, the presentation is amazing, and I can't wait to present it in front of the students. :D
I expecially would like to commend on the "What would you do if..." slide, it was really provocative. (For those not here,

Fundraising:
Bake sale:
Donate bake goods to the sale, (rainbow themed please)
At least a dozen please!

THE BAKE SALE WILL BE HAPPENING! (After Christmas Break?)

Ribbons/Bracelets:
Making Rainbow, and red/other colors.
Make 200-300 ribbons
Can sell at bake sale.
Do different styles of bracelets
(Con: Materials, time.)

HEY! LISTEN! EVERYBODY NEEDS TO THINK ABOUT WHAT WE CAN DO FOR FUNDRAISING!!! :D
(Beads? Shrinky Dinks? And more ideas!)

Community Jar: Spare change to put for fundraising? (This might be happening)

Possibly we might be getting shirts, tye-dye. We'll be getting the primary colors, and getting normal white t-shirts with our logo (still to be decided) on the front printed in either white or black. If the cost is too much to get a design on it, we shall be doing felt letters! Shirts will be done after fundraising, to pay for the shirts!! :D

November 23rd

~Survey: Audrey is going to have it out by we think... Sometime between the holiday breaks. (Thanksgiving and Christmas). And we possibly might be over at LCHS with the survey. There might be a teacher questionaire in addition. It's 25-30 questions long.

~We want to say that RENT was amaaaaaaazing! But it did not, in the notice of nondiscrimintaion on the program, it did not list sexual orientation or gender identity.

~We talked about teachers acting against the gay community. The main concern that if we can't trust our teachers to help us out, when they are supposed to be their leaders, who can we go to in school?

CLASSROOM VISITS:
I.Intro: Introduce selves, what we do, why we're here, when we meet.
II. Terminology: LGBTQ, GSA, Hate Crimes, PRISM
III. Bullying: (we're going to stress) Who and why people bully, how you can protect yourself from bullying, effect of derogatory terms, how you can help (not be a bully/stop a bully/ be proactive)
IV. Questions + Discussions: what would you do... (personal level)
V. Outro: After the discussion, the opposite of the intro, make the finishing statements, and move on to the next class.

Harsh Realities: The Experiences of Transgender Youth in Our Nation's Schools

This isn't an article I wrote myself, I found it online. It is about a study that Harsh Realities did, the first comprehensive study on transgender students, and it's amazing. Some of the information pertains to a lot of us, and it's definatley something that we can talk about at upcoming meetings.

For those who want to read the entire thing, the actual article is: http://www.glsen.org/cgi-bin/iowa/all/library/record/2388.html


I'm just putting up some of the statistics in the article.

"Key findings of Harsh Realities include:

-90% of transgender students heard derogatory remarks, such as "dyke" or "faggot," sometimes, often or frequently in school in the past year.

-90% of transgender students heard negative remarks about someone's gender expression sometimes, often or frequently in school in the past year.

-Less than a fifth of transgender students said that school staff intervened most of the time or always when hearing homophobic remarks (16%) or negative remarks about someone's gender expression (11%).

-School staff also contributed to the harassment. A third of transgender students heard school staff make homophobic remarks (32%), sexist remarks (39%) and negative comments about someone's gender expression (39%) sometimes, often or frequently in the past year.

-Two-thirds of transgender students felt unsafe in school because of their sexual orientation (69%) and how they expressed their gender (65%).

-Almost all transgender students had been verbally harassed (e.g., called names or threatened) in the past year at school because of their sexual orientation (89%) and gender expression (87%).

-More than half of all transgender students had been physically harassed (e.g., pushed or shoved) in school in the past year because of their sexual orientation (55%) and gender expression (53%).

-More than a quarter of transgender students had been physically assaulted (e.g., punched, kicked or injured with a weapon) in school in the past year because of their sexual orientation (28%) and gender expression (26%).

-Most transgender students (54%) who were victimized in school did not report the events to school authorities. Among those who did report incidents to school personnel, few students (33%) believed that staff addressed the situation effectively.

-Transgender students who were out to most or all other students and school staff reported a greater sense of belonging to their school community than those who were not out or only out to a few other students or staff.

-Although most transgender students (83%) could identify at least one supportive educator, only a third (36%) could identify many (six or more) supportive staff.

-Only half (54%) of transgender students reported that their school had an anti-harassment policy, and only 24% said that the school policy included specific protections based on sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression. "

A lot of those statistics were really sad I thought, and this Friday (Transgender Day of Remembrance) is a good way to show our support for fellow gays/lesbians/allies.

Transgender Day of Rememberance

Transgender Day of Remembrance occurs on Nov. 20 each year in commemoration of the murder of Rita Hester, a trans woman from outside Boston, Massachussets who was stabbed to death in 1998. She was well-liked in the community, who responded to the news with a large vigil. This began the effort to pay respects to all people who are killed as a result of transphobia via a website, www.RememberingOurDead.org and the International Transgender Day of Remembrance. This year over 100 deaths worldwide are listed on TransgenderDOR.org.

If we can, I'd like for everyone who is reading this post to wear all black, and something rainbow. I will be wearing all black and a rainbow armband on this date, and I will try to spread the word around.

I don't know if we want to do what other groups are doing, or what people I know are doing, and also take a vow of silence upon this date... I suppose that's up to you. I will be taking a vow of silence, or I will try~ I'm not very good at being quiet... ;) But whatever you all decide is fine.

I want to put up posters, or do an announcement, so I need to talk to Mrs. W when I get the chance, or if any of you want to do it?

Rose out!