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Written by Lucky Tomaszek and Lisa Neff
Oct 6, 2010
Seventeen-year-old Cody Barker campaigned to make high school safer for students, because he didn’t always feel safe or welcome at his high school in Shiocton, a small town in the Fox Valley.
On Sept. 13, Barker committed suicide.
Barker was involved in GLBT Partnership, a support group for teens at Harmony Cafe, 223 E. College Ave., Appleton, a community center sponsored by Good Will Industries.
Barker also was working to start a gay-straight alliance at Shiocton High School, where he was active in the choir.
Maria Peeples, Barker’s peer mentor through GSA for Safe Schools, says the teen was a passionate activist for students, especially those, “targeted or ostracized for their sexual orientation or their gender identity and expression. … He really cared about making schools a safe place for students. That wasn’t always his own experience with school.”
Teens are subject to social pressure and risks, such as alcohol and drug abuse, unprotected or unsafe sex and depression. Those risks escalate – five to 20 times – for LGBT youth, says Jesse Heffernan of Appleton, who is involved in the Harmony Cafe GLBT Partnership.
When LGBT teens participate in programs such as the partnership and a GSA, the risk factors can fall to more average levels. But, cautions, Heffernan, finding a support group isn’t always enough.
Barker’s death, Peeples says, is “a reminder that there’s still so much work we still need to do.”
Five other young gays committed suicide last month, the rash of deaths prompting a series of warnings across the country from school administrators, educators and activists, who, in the past decade, have stepped up efforts to combat anti-LGBT harassment in U.S. schools.
The Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, in its 2009 National School Climate Survey, reports nine out of 10 LGB students say they are bullied, and almost all transgender students report being verbally harassed and threatened.
There’s a connection between harassment and suicide, says Kathy Flores, Appleton’s diversity coordinator. “Even the perception of being gay increases (a teen’s) risk for being bullied and therefore the risk of suicide,” she says.
The Harmony Cafe, which serves the youth of four counties – Brown, Calumet, Outagamie and Winnebago — that are home to more than 262,000 people – is working with local schools and youth-based organizations to combat bullying.
Harmony Cafe provides sensitivity training in the schools, as well as for organizations such as Harbor House, Boys and Girls Clubs of the Fox Valley, Reach Counseling, Christine Ann Center and Youth Go.
A goal is to expand the number of GSAs in the four-county area. Of the 39 public and private schools in those four counties, 16 have GSAs, says Tim Michael at GSA for Safe Schools in Madison.
Also, Harmony Café has partnered with those agencies to form the Free 2 B U campaign. Groups and community members who are willing to be safe spaces for LGBT youth will publicly display stickers for easy identification by teens, Heffernan said.
