gov wolf signs trauma informed education legislation

But when he asked the school he planned to send his child to how it handled discrimination, officials told him homophobia “doesn’t exist” in the school district. He was shocked by the amount of homophobia he witnessed in his day-to-day life. In 2016, they returned to Lancaster with their husband and son, and the cultural difference was jarring. He recalls using gender-inclusive language - like “friends,” instead of “boys and girls” - and ensuring books represented students from “all kinds of families.” “Students did not talk about it, I didn’t talk about it, my queer friends didn’t talk about it,” he said in an interview with Spotlight PA.įisher moved to New York City and began teaching in 2003 at private schools there, which even then used teaching practices that embraced differences among students. It was a taboo topic, and because of the stigma, he and other queer people he knew didn’t come out until later in life when they felt safer. He said the existence of LGBTQIA+ people wasn’t discussed in the schools he attended.

HARRISBURG - As a closeted gay child growing up in Lancaster in the 1990s, J Eric Fisher didn’t feel safe. Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan newsroom powered by The Philadelphia Inquirer in partnership with PennLive/The Patriot-News, TribLIVE/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and WITF Public Media.

Gov wolf signs trauma informed education legislation