School bullies forcing gay students to drop out early
Some gay students have been "bullied so badly that they have been forced to drop out of school early," according to Michael Barron of BeLonG To, a project for gay and lesbian youths.
Mr Barron was speaking at the launch of a national campaign to combat the problem which demands that schools take action to address homophobia.
The campaign was launched after research from Dublin City University found that 79pc of teachers were aware of homophobic bullying in schools and 30pc of these encountered it at least 10 times.
Niall Crowley, Chief Executive of the Equality Authority, said: "Research highlighted a limited capacity in schools to respond to homophobic bullying."
He said 90pc of teachers reported that their school's anti-bullying policy did not include any reference to gay and lesbian issues.
