Hundreds Of Vermont Students Stage Sit-In After 15-Year-Old Cole Peterson Involved In Anti-Gay Bullying Incident

Between class periods Friday, the students demonstrating inside the Essex High School gym, in Essex County, Vermont moved into the atrium, filled the space and chanted, “Hey, hey, ho, ho, homophobia has got to go!” Friday’s sit-in reports The Burlington Free Press followed allegations that two students had bullied freshman Cole Peterson last weekend for being bisexual, and that one of the pair repeatedly had punched Cole in the head during an altercation at Maple Street Park in Essex Junction. Cole’s father, dressed in a suit and tie, stood among the throng of chanting students Friday who were supporting his son. “He’s just blown away by it,” Duane Peterson said. “Monday and Tuesday were awful. And then this happened.” Throughout the week, Cole Peterson’s friends garnered support for him online, which culminated in Friday’s sit-in. By mid-morning, roughly 300 students, including Cole, had gathered around the center of the gym. They talked with representatives from Outright Vermont, an advocacy group that works with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning youth. Several students sat in a corner assembling buttons with slogans including “equality matters” and “bullying stops here,” while another two dozen or so students, some from other schools, stood outside and waved signs at the occasional passing car. “I feel amazing,” said Cole, 15, said. “I feel really loved and cared for, and I feel like we can make a difference with this, and I really hope that we can change something. Principal Rob Reardon stood watch from the atrium, and said, “The energy about the issue is obviously appropriate.” Inside the gym, school official Philip Crawford told the demonstrators that their teachers reserved the right to demand work due Friday. Crawford, the school’s director of library media services and an advisor to the Gay-Straight Transgender Alliance student group, added that bullying at the school had pushed students to the “boiling point.” He added that, “I hear it sometimes in the hallways, but what I hear more of is feedback from the students” who come to the alliance. “Students,” he said, “complain a lot about hearing ‘That’s so gay; you’re gay.’... And as teachers, you obviously don’t hear that as much as students do.” More than a dozen students interviewed said they had heard such language and had been victims of some kind of bullying at school. “I’m really disappointed in our fellow students” who allegedly targeted Cole, said McKenzie Silk, 15. “I want to see the behaviour in the school change.” Mary Farmer, 15, said, “We want people to feel safe coming to school.” Several students said, and Crawford mentioned that he has heard, that teachers too often fail to address bullying. Cole said he intends to talk to the Union 46 School Board, which oversees the high school, about the district’s policy against harassment and bullying. Cole said he suffered bumps and bruises in the alleged attack Sunday but was not seriously injured. He said two freshmen followed him and some friends Sunday from the Five Corners intersection to Maple Street Park, yelling anti-gay slurs at him for at least half an hour. At the park, Cole said, he confronted the boys, and they attacked him. He said the same students harassed him Monday and Tuesday but stopped after he reported them to school administrators. Reardon and acting Essex Police Chief Brad Larose said the school and the police department are investigating the allegations. Peterson and police declined to release the names of the alleged assailants. Cole said he wanted the suspects to face a punishment more severe than detention.
School staff should know that “harassment and bullying happens every day to a great number of people, whether it be in the hallway, on the bus, at lunch, in class, after or before school,” Cole said. “They should make it public knowledge that students can come to them no matter what.” Cole said he didn’t know who to turn to about his problems at school. Friday, school counsellor Michelle Rath posted on the school’s website, on behalf of herself and the other school counsellors: “Any student who feels that they might need follow-up support, please know that we are all available to you! Come in to see us if you would like any follow up to today’s events. We encourage you to come see us!” School officials restricted the sit-in to Essex High School students. Alumni and students from Colchester High School and Missisquoi Valley Union High School demonstrated outside. “A lot of people struggle with coming out because of things like this,” Olivia Mercue, a 16-year-old student at Colchester High School, said of the alleged attack. “It took me two years.” Madison Harris, 18, an Essex High School graduate and a freshman at the University of Vermont, said, “It was sort of disturbing that this sort of bullying did happen. We wanted to show our support.”