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LGBTQ Plus

Rare Poll Finds LGBT Students Fear School Because Of Bullies

At a Pride Parade in Bogota, Colombia
At a Pride Parade in Bogota, Colombia

-Analysis-

BOGOTÁ — A majority of gay and lesbian students in Colombia feel unsafe in school and almost a quarter of them miss classes because they fear getting bullied, a survey by two non-profits found. Sixty-seven percent of LGBT secondary schoolchildren feel unsafe at school, according to the poll by advocacy groups Colombia Diversa and Sentiido, which surveyed 500 students.

A 14-year-old bisexual student said she had not yet come out as her school would "open a disciplinary folder and force her to see a psychologist." An 18-year-old said he was relieved to have finished secondary school. He said he was tired of hearing one teacher repeat that gay men would "end up with a ripped sphincter," research by the study found.

Juliana Martínez, a member of Sentiido and a lecturer at the American University, told El Espectador that there are no figures on bullying of LGBT students at Colombian schools. "We're practically guessing ... (as) it is often not recognized as violence," she said.

The poll found that 59% of victims prefer to not speak up about the intimidation they face. This is not surprising. Many schools and parents blame the LGBT student, not the bully. Constitutional rights and the education ministry's rules are rarely enforced in schools. Sergio Urrego, a gay student who committed suicide in August 2014 after relentless bullying, has finally made Colombians wake up to the toxic environment in schools.

The study offered solutions to reduce bullying of LGBT students at school such as monitoring the language students use in classrooms. It's impossible ... to build a country at peace, when our educational institutions are favorable settings for war and violence," the survey noted.

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FOCUS: Russia-Ukraine War

The Dam Attack Adds To Ukraine's Huge Environmental Toll, Already Estimated At $54 Billion

The blowing up of the Nova Kakhovka dam has unleashed massive flooding in southern Ukraine. The damage is sure to be staggering, which will add to the huge toll the government estimated in March that takes into account land, air, and water pollution, burned-down forests, and destroyed natural resources.

Photo of a burnt forest in Kharkiv

Local men dismantle the remains of destroyed Russian military equipment for scrap metal in a burned forest in Kharkiv

Anna Akage

-This article was updated on June 6, 2023 at 2 p.m. local time-

The blowing up of a large Soviet-era dam on the Dnipro river, which has sparked massive flooding, may turn out to be the most environmentally damaging of the Ukraine war.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has blamed Russia for the attack on the Nova Kakhovka dam, calling it "ecocide," with the flooding already estimated to affect over 16,000 people in surrounding villages, many of whom have been told to evacuate immediately. So far, eight villages have been flooded completely by water from the dam's reservoirs.

Moscow, meanwhile, says Kyiv is behind the blast in occupied areas of Ukraine. But even before knowing who is to blame, environmental experts note that is just the latest ecological casualty in the 15-month-long conflict.

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In March, for the first time, there was an estimate of the cost of the environmental damage of the war on Ukraine: $54 billion.

Ruslan Strilets, Ukraine’s Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources, explained that experts have applied a new methodology based on environmental inspection to tally the cost.

“This includes land, air, and water pollution, burned-down forests, and destroyed natural resources,” he said. “Our main goal is to show these figures to everyone so that they can be seen in Europe and the world so that everyone understands the price of this environmental damage and how to restore it to Ukraine.”

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