School students must answer a questionnaire about their views on homosexuals

Students in Odense Municipality's 9th grade classes will have to answer a questionnaire about their views on homosexuality.

This is now clear, after the Children and Youth Committee in Odense City Council on Monday adopted a proposal put forward by Venstre's Mark Grossmann.

According to Grossmann, the survey should give politicians a picture of the young people's reality, so they can better make policy in this area.

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What will the students be asked?

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The proposal adopted by the Children and Youth Committee suggests the following questions:

* Do you consider that homosexuality is fully accepted in Denmark?

* Do you accept homosexuality?

* Do you experience that homosexuality is accepted among students at your school?

* Do you experience that homosexual students can be open about their sexuality at your school without being subjected to bullying, teasing, or negative comments?

* Within the past year, have you experienced words or expressions about homosexuals being used as slurs at your school?

* How do you generally experience the tone among students at your school when homosexuality is discussed?

Thomas Mahler, who is headteacher at Dalum School and chair of the School Leaders' Association in Odense Municipality, however, finds it difficult to see what the survey is meant to contribute.

- I find it difficult to see the purpose of exactly this survey. Two years ago, a VIVE survey was conducted, which was quite thorough, and I think that some of the challenges that survey revealed still apply.

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Better with concrete initiatives

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The association Lambda, which is a Funen association for LGBT+ people, welcomes the new survey, but like Thomas Mahler, they refer to the VIVE survey.

Therefore, it would be better to address the problems that the two-year-old survey revealed, says Niklas Lindsten, who is a board member at Lambda.

- We would rather see concrete initiatives being launched to alleviate the problem instead of a questionnaire survey where we don't really know what will come afterwards.

Politicians should know that LGBT+ youth in Odense are struggling, says Niklas Lindsten. Therefore, they should present initiatives that can improve conditions for them, he believes.

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Councillor wanted the proposal changed

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At the Children and Youth Committee meeting, the councillor for the area, Brian Dybro from the Socialist People's Party, put forward an amendment proposal. He did not believe that responses from individual schools should be visible, only the combined responses for the entire municipality.

However, the amendment was not adopted, and Thomas Mahler fears that this could change the focus of the survey.

- I can be nervous that this survey will be used to stigmatize some of the schools, because I think there are going to be big differences.

Chair of the School Leaders' Association in Odense Municipality, Thomas Mahler, finds it difficult to see the purpose of the questionnaire survey that his 9th grade students will have to answer.

Niklas Lindsten from Lambda also fears that the results from individual schools will overshadow the overall problem that the association believes exists in Odense.

- It is very important to us that it ends up being about targeting efforts, so we don't just use a survey to show which schools are worst off.

The Children and Youth Administration in Odense Municipality expects that the questionnaire survey can be carried out at the end of this year or the beginning of next year.

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