Christophe Cornu, specialist form UNESCO Health and Education section, dialogued with students and professors at the Central University “Marta Abreu” of Las Villas about the comprehensive answering model created by UNESCO to fight against bullying.
The Official, that visited the Island on the occasion of the 10th Cuban Activities against Homophobia and Transphobia, explained that this model has six essential components that must be taken into account to obtain the expected results.
The first element consists on the need of educative policies to rule the relation among students, including rules that mention explicitly this kind of violence.
Secondly, students and professors may have curricula and didactic materials that support the teaching-learning process without highlighting, for instance, stereotypes about sexuality.
Also, Mr. Cornu added that training professors and other docents is vital, because many times, due to, their acknowledgement about bullying do not allow them to identify this phenomenon opportunely and correctly.
The 4th element affirms that there is not a proper support to victims and other students affected by this kind of violence, because of the frequent homophobic attitudes of professors indeed.
The 5th element demands the need to establish strategically alliances with civil society organizations and the community in order to provide information about it and to sensitize the population.
Finally, he mentioned the importance of monitoring the context to know if discriminatory situations increase or decrease at applying this model in schools.
According to him, educative scope at present is the highest risk for homophobic and transphobic bullying, more than the community and family contexts. He also affirmed that even in developed countries like Norway, LGBT students are more vulnerable than heterosexuals, in a 2-7 scale.