"Homophobic bullying is endemic in British schools," says Johan Jensen, co-author of the report. "Some tell of physical bullying, for others it's verbal. There were so many examples. Jo, 19, told us he'd been stabbed because of his sexuality and a girl called Jamelia, aged 18, said she'd been beaten up and was unable to walk for nearly a year. We knew there was a big problem, but we didn't know it was this bad. These are very high numbers. It's shocking."

Bullies who threatened a new student at their Nova Scotia high school for wearing a pink polo shirt were themselves schooled by two seniors who dressed half the student body in pink two days later, the Chronicle-Herald of Halifax reported.

The newbie, a ninth-grader, showed up in pink Sept. 5 for the first day of class at Central Kings Rural High School and was set upon by a group of six to 10 older teens who called him gay and threatened to beat him up, the paper reported.

The next day, seniors David Shepherd and Travis Price decided to act.

[...]

Enlisting as many students as they could online that evening, David and Travis headed to school Friday with a pink basketball, 75 pink tank tops for male students to wear and yards of pink fabric for headbands and armbands. They even persuaded a local retailer to open early so they could buy more.

"Clothes were flying. They were digging to help us find pink shirts," David told the Kings County Register.

BRIGHTON, September 17, 2007 – Every school should have a ‘Bullying Mentor’, a trained member of staff to counsel children who are the victims of homophobic and other types of bullying, according to the Liberal Democrats.

The proposal was part of a package of measures aimed at tackling bullying in schools passed by the Liberal Democrat Autumn conference today in Brighton.

...

“Bullying Mentors in each school would help deal with the consequences of bullying, while joint action between pupils and teachers would tackle the causes.

“All schools, including religious schools, should have anti-bullying policies that specifically address homophobic bullying,” the openly gay MP continued.

He said the bullying is under investigation.

"We know who all the people are, and it will be dealt with with appropriate corrective behavior," Pearl said.

A second teenage girl was sentenced Wednesday to 1 year of probation and ordered to write letters of apology for distributing anti-gay fliers earlier this year outside Crystal Lake South High School.

The girl, 16, also was sentenced to 14 days in the McHenry County Jail, but Juvenile Court Judge Michael Chmiel suspended the sentence as long as she abides by the rules of her probation.

...

The other teen, now 17, received a nearly identical sentence in August.