There is no doubt that the school is an important place in the life of every human being. It is at school that successes are taking place, but also where failures first occur.  It is where most people first experience love, as well as disappointment. Therefore, it is certainly the place of many existential events and issues.

Discrimination is one of them. Discrimination and violence exist in virtually every school. In each school too, we see similar problems related to the lack of tolerance and acceptance for diversity. That is why it is so important to have the ability to listen and learn important information from students as a starting point for counteracting steps.

Discrimination is defined as "distinguishing differences between things or treating someone as inferior based on their race, sex, national origin, age or other characteristics". (http://www.yourdictionary.com/discrimination#GYAzKIK3BFHJAl2Y.99). In turn, violence is defined violence as "the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself, another person, or against a group or community, that either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, maldevelopment, or deprivation." (World report on violence and health- WRVH).  How can we tackle these in our schools?

Tackling discrimination and violence

Counteracting consists of "conscious acting raising knowledge, skills influencing attitudes that are aimed at counteracting discrimination and violence motivated by prejudices and promoting equality" (http://www.tea.org.pl/eng/SiteContent?item=Anti-Discrimination_Education). Knowledge is wealth. It allows you to build proper attitudes in relationships with others, and at the same time to fight against stereotypes and myths, which are the starting point for violence and discrimination. The basis is also fear of the ‘other’, in the sense of a different one. How can we counteract discrimination and violence? Authors have presented numerous sets of behaviors that allow us to tackle discrimination: "organizing or participating in demonstrations, happenings, rallies, marches, artistic activities, preparation and / or signing of letters, petitions, protest letters, volunteering in organizations counteracting discrimination in groups for people from discriminated groups, peer / incidental education (daily conversations) with relatives, people, people and information and sensitizing them), statements on Internet forums that counterbalance stereotypes and hate speech, interventions on administrators / websites, send comments and comments to the media, when they are discriminate, reporting on the prevention of anti-discrimination regulations (in the workplace, science, formal and informal group), appointing bodies monitoring equality / lack of commodities (eg committees for equality in workplaces, schools, universities), participating in events organized by minority groups, highlighting the benefits of diversity and equality in different situations participation in electoral meetings, contributing to the development of discrimination and counteraction, and many, many more ... " (Branka, Cieślikowska, 2010, p.122-123). It is important that such help in which, for example, others are involved, has positive direct results as well as side effects. The person supporting these efforts also tends to benefit in a number of ways, including:

„• At the level of self-experience of a person reacting to discrimination: increase of self-esteem and self-satisfaction, personal satisfaction, respect (towards themselves / others and others), acceptance, surprise, joy, overcoming their own resistance, relief, reduction of their own tension, sense of solidarity;

• At the I level - competencies of a person reacting to discrimination: development of responsiveness, confirmation of coherence with values, increase of sense of influence, sense of fulfilling a civic duty, breaking the pattern;

• At the social level - cooperation for change, the cascading effect - how I will do it, others will see it, they can also do it and the effect of change will be greater, the signal for the environment - teaching others to react;

• At the level of the discriminated person - empowerment / affirmation, respect, recognition, increased sense of security, support, impulse to act for others, including those discriminated against, sense of solidarity and justice social” ((Branka, Cieślikowska, 2010, p.123).

Marlee's Story

„Hi, my name’s Marlee.  I’m 16, and I go to school in inner city Melbourne, so easy access to all the good shops. I play music quite a bit, and probably my favourite thing. I’ve got six siblings, and yeah, I love them, and I love my family. I’ve experienced discrimination mostly either at school, or just off random people in the street, and you don’t really expect it as much at school yet because a lot of schools have antidiscrimination policies, but it’s really the place that it happens the most. I’ve moved schools in the past, and I’m currently really happy at my school, it’s like a caring place, but I haven’t had such luck at other places.

At my last school I found that, well people would just say things, like they would just throw these words around, and they probably wouldn’t have been meant to be offensive or discriminatory, but you know, when you’re just a wee tacker, you’re just young, you get these words thrown around and they’re used as a synonym for bad, or crappy, and you don’t really get why that would be bad, and you get this feeling that when you’re already starting trying to work out who you are, and what you’re planning on doing, and everything that comes along with growing up, you’re getting this crap thrown at you from every angle.

It’s not even meant to be crappy, but just makes you just feel like you’re not worth as much as the other people before you even know who you are. None of my straight friends have ever had to come out and say, “Oh this, I’m this, so I’m straight, that’s who I am, just accept me,” When it comes to gender I’ve always been one of those people who’s just like, oh, no I don’t really want to act like that. They want you to either be butch, or they want you to be feminine, or they want you to be masculine, or they want you to be just one thing, and I think my friends are all like, you’re not Marlee the girl, you’re not Marlee the boy, you’re not Marlee the gender queer person; you’re Marlee the person, you’re Marlee our friend,” which I think is the best way people can be. I don’t think you should be judged on being one thing or the other, you should be judged on being yourself.

I guess my experience with depression, it hit me earlier in high school than I am now, but it hit me in like year seven, and even just getting the label of being depressed can lead to more depression, because people would be like, “Oh, you’re a slashie, you’re a this, you’re a that,” and you’re like, “Well no, but OK.”  And on top of already getting these, “Oh, you faggot, you queer, you homo,” on top of that, like you lose all this self worth, and a lot of people just don’t seem to get how they might be joking on things like that, but they don’t seem to get that it can actually really upset you. I mean for a period of time I didn’t want to go out, I didn’t want to go to school, I didn’t want to wake up, I just wanted to stay in this... my bedroom, I just wanted to stay asleep in my little cocoon, and I sort of withdrew socially, and people didn’t seem to get why, which sort of led to further alienation from others. And no-one ever seems to want to be around someone who’s sad, so especially when you’re younger, people don’t get it, and slowly I guess it went from people joking around and being mean to me, to people ignoring me, and to me being invisible, rather than being something that maybe people didn’t like, and I just... I guess I stopped being who I was, and just became sort of this body walking around pretending to be a person.

In a world where there was no discrimination against sexuality, gender, I’d feel comfortable. I assume everyone would feel comfortable and that being this... there’d be no fear in just being who you are.  There’d... everyone would just be happy, there wouldn’t be kids being kicked out of home, there wouldn’t be people at work too scared to talk about their home life at work, there would be... it’d be a world without fear, and a world where, well everyone felt loved” (https://www.beyondblue.org.au/transcripts/marlee's-story).

1. What does it mean to you to be discriminated against?
2. What benefits can come from preventing violence and discrimination?
3. Do you know where to look for support and help?
4. What functions should have the school provide to support discriminated people?
5. Should the school pedagogues be professionally trained?

• Edukacja antydyskryminacyjna. Podręcznik trenerski, (red.) Mai Branka, Dominika Cieślikowska
• https://www.beyondblue.org.au/transcripts/marlee's-story
• http://marccr.com/documents/BHS/Fact-Sheet-LGBT.pdf
• http://www.laborlaw.org/Uploads/motley%20paper.pdf
• https://kph.org.pl/publikacje_kph/
• http://www.tea.org.pl/userfiles/infografiki%202016/dla_rodzicow_a2_kolor.pdf
• http://lambdawarszawa.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Raport_dyskryminacja_2000_p.pdf