Introducing Safe Place Signs

Safe Place signs are small door signs that teachers can put up on their classroom entrances to give a nod to to the GSA community at your school. It gives an anti-bullying message. You can make very general ones if they are too controversial.

There are many templates out there that you can choose from the internet. I recommend that you print out a variety of them and show them to your principal to help you select one. Expect that there will be opinions against certain symbols that to you or the kids may seem just fine. For example, rainbows(too religious), intertwined gender symbols(too sexual) and equal signs (too political). Signs that we ended up are below. We have the kids doodle and color them in. We originally had rainbows, which were not approved. Surprisingly the equal signs were so that's what we ran with. After polling the teachers they said that they liked the ones that the kids colored in better than the color printed ones.

I would create a box of them and keep it in the teacher's lounge. There will be teachers who will not wish to place them on their door for religious reasons and you need to respect that and not simply place them in teacher's mailboxes. It will make them feel pressured and uncomfortable. For some even though the signs will signify anti bullying, any sign of tolerance and empathy towards the LGTB community means support of the "lifestyle choice" to conservatives. And for some teachers, it's not ok to be gay in their classroom. As much as it doesn’t make any sense for a teacher to not be accepting towards all students, some teachers privately feel uncomfortable around out students.

You will need to expect that there is going to be a population of the school staff especially in a conservative district who will not be supportive but possibly outright against your efforts. Continue to make it clear that the signs are not policy but 100% the teacher's choice and a student led effort to provide the option for their school.

Convey the message to the students to give positive reinforcement and their appreciation to teachers who display them. It's difficult to touch on the subject that some teachers would not wish to post the signs, especially when they are teachers that they really like. It could be pretty heartbreaking. They come to school feeling like their teachers are accepting and inclusive. These particular teachers will honestly feel that they are upholding that because they don't support what they believe is "sinful" and "against god-like" activity.

Have the focus instead be on showing appreciation to the teachers who do have the signs up. Thank you notes and having the kids thank them verbally when they go to class. We have a list of the teachers who have them on their doors on our website with a big Thank You (which is still a little controversial because it highlights in a backwards way which teachers don't have them up).