Alt Ed Unit Rationale
In today's day and age harassment has become a troublesome issue in schools throughout
the country. It is a broad term that takes on many different types. Students may be harassed via
name calling, bullying, labeling, and stereotyping. Students are teased for their sexual orientation,
their weight, and even the amount of sexual partners. There is so much stress to fit into a group,
but harassment leads to outcasting an individual or group based on certain criteria. In the school
system, it leads into creating an “other,” more or less isolating them from the rest of the school
society.
Catherin Atkins attempts to challenge the concepts of harassment, society, and solitude in
her novel, Alt Ed. Each of the characters reveals to the reader their own reasons for feeling isolated
or excluding others as they partake in a weekly meeting with their teacher, Mr. Duffy. For instance,
the main protagonist, Susan, struggles with weight problems and as such is often harassed by her
peers, particularly by another member of the group named Kale. He uses intimidation and name
calling to harass her, and her fear leads her to be silent. In the first chapter alone, Susan ends up
leaving the room to avoid the confrontation and intimidation that Kale uses, thus isolating her
further from her peers. When she leaves, she does meet another student who she eventually
befriends, and through him and the discussions in the weekly group, Susan comes to find herself no
longer willing to tolerate the harassment of the other students. In the climax, she confronts Kale to
determine why he hates her so much and in the end, Susan finds herself no longer in solitude but
instead with friends.
Susan's journey can be something with which the students can relate. Students who are
interested in characters and can relate to characters are more likely to read. While that is an
admirable goal in itself, Susan's dilemma provides another opportunity for us as teachers. Students
can comment on Susan's experiences and relate them to their own, or even the experiences of their
peers at school. Through this process, students can hopefully begin to see the impact words and
harassment can have on their peers. On a broader scale, it can also help students cope if they have
a similar problem in school. Studies have shown that students who are obese are more likely to be
bullied “even if they possess qualities that can discourage bullies, such as having good social skills
or doing well in school”1. Susan's dilemma is therefore something that students could relate to,
especially as obesity in American students rises. Students can read her inner battle with herself and
her outer battle with her peers and relate. In some sense, they can see that in her case things
worked out in the end, and therefore get a positive roll model. In some cases, this may be the
difference between another suicide attempt and a student choosing to live and persevere.
Susan is not the only character that students can relate to however, nor is she the only one
being harassed. Brendan is another character who is intimidated and humiliated by the entire
football team to the point where he gets a doctor's note to excuse him from gym for the rest of the
year. He spends that hour working in the library instead, which is where we can see that Brendan
has also been isolated from the school society. The students, especially the males, choose to harass
Brendan because they believe he is gay, and the football team signed a petition to keep him out of
the locker room in fear that he might try to hit on them or check them out while they were
changing. Even more disturbing is the fact that the coach was aware of the petition and did nothing
about it.
1 http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/05/03/obesity.bullying/index.html
Most of the students in the school seem to have heard the rumor regarding Brendan's
sexuality, making it extremely hard for him to find friends. During the weekly meetings, the males
are particularly uncomfortable talking to him one on one. As time goes on, however, Brendan
becomes Susan's friend and football player, Randy, actually stands up for him and says that he will
no longer sign the petition. It is a small victory, however, it does show hope that things do get
better for Brendan, and students like him who are bullied due to perceived sexuality. In recent
years, homophobic harassment has been a serious issue in schools around the country, and by
discussing Brendan's experiences, students may come to their own opinions regarding such
practices.
A survey in 2008 showed that “approximately two-thirds of students have heard homophobic
remarks from school personnel2” As educators, we need to establish that homophobic remarks are
not to be tolerated by anyone, regardless of authoritative position. Furthermore, “LGBTQ students
were five times more likely to report having skipped school in the last month because of safety
concerns than the general population of students3” Students should not feel afraid to come to
school, yet many do and these students may be the very ones that are in our classrooms. Even more
tragic is the fact that anti-gay bullying “in the month of September [2010], resulted in nine suicides
because of teenagers' sexual orientation or gender expression4” Branden's experiences in Alt Ed
can be a last chance to connect to a student who would otherwise commit suicide due to
harassment, much like in the case of Susan's experiences. Letting students see that they are both
prank called, harassed, called names, and all around demoralized by their peers not only gives
2 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/irene-monroe/when-will-the-homophobic_b_753764.html
3 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/irene-monroe/when-will-the-homophobic_b_753764.html
4 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/irene-monroe/when-will-the-homophobic_b_753764.html
students a sense that they are not alone but also gives them hope because both Susan and Branden
overcome these odds and find friends in their peers.
In the case of Amber, she was harassed by others because of rumors that she had slept with
the entire football team. People believed she was a skank. However, through talks with Susan, we
actually discover that Amber was raped by a group of boys at the school and had actually gotten
pregnant afterward. She tells Susan that she will be getting an abortion, and Susan keeps the secret
from the rest of the school. The harassment and isolation eventually got to Amber, causing her to
drop out of school and the weekly program. Sadly, many students do drop out, and some of them do
so simply because of bullying and because they feel intimidated by their peers. Students may have
similar experiences to Amber's. Though they may not have been raped, there may be girls in the
classroom who are pregnant and experience similar harassment from their peers. Talking about
Amber eventually leads to discussions about the school community in which our students live.
Lastly, Alt Ed gives us the chance to pose the question: what do we do to prevent
harassment in schools? In the story, the characters are subjected to weekly meetings with a
professor in order to discuss the various ways in which they have acted out in school, usually in
ways that were violent or destructive. Through these meetings, characters began to learn who the
real person was behind the face they saw in the hallways. Plus, in the end of the story, the
characters learned that words could hurt when Susan confronted Kale's intimidating behavior.
Through the discussion, it appeared that Kale did not believe his words could hurt and was more or
less trying to fit in with his friends. This confrontation can lead to students discussing why
harassment, bullying, labeling, and intimidation happens elsewhere, and if it happens in their own
school, the reason behind it. The book's message is one where words hurt and isolate, yet also have
the power to heal and unite. It ends on a hopeful note that students going through these same
issues can relate with and draw inspiration from. The conversation can also easily lend itself to
discussions on what to do if someone sees someone being harassed, thus helping create a sense of
oneness and safety in schools.