by Tara Cavanaugh
Bob Higgins is a "safe schools consultant" for the Michigan Department of Education. He surveys the safety level of K-12 schools, uses federal grant money to create safe school programs and trainings and also helped establish the Sexual Minority Youth Project.
1. One of the many projects you work on at your job is the Sexual Minority Youth Project. What's that?
It started at the Calhoun Intermediate School District maybe 12 years ago. It was an effort to address issues for LGBT youth, so we came up with the training and we came up with an attempt at a resource guide. Both have improved greatly since then. It was meant to be a start and it expanded to the state level and we've been doing it ever since. We've trained more than a thousand school personnel over the years, and we do four or five regional trainings a year around the state so that everyone has a chance to attend at some point. We have an expert work group that includes representatives from the Michigan ACLU, universities, nonprofits and advisory groups from local districts. We have all of these people who are our experts and we can run ideas by them. It's been a really great experience over time to have all of these partners.
2. Tell us about your background.
I've been a teacher, a coach, a principal and an administrator at public and private schools. I was a student assistant program manager for 35 districts in 5 counties in southwest Michigan. When I made the training in Calhoun county, we did a lot of crisis response work too.
3. What's hard about your job?
The hardest part of my job is parents see that "safe schools consultant title" and call because they're concerned about their child and they think, 'there's the hammer.' But because we're a home rule state, the decision remains at the local level. I don't have any authority to intervene. These parents are angry, frustrated, worried. That's the hard part.
4. What are you working on that you're excited about?
The safe and supportive schools grant. We got it in October. It will spread out over the next 4 to 5 years. It gives us a real possibility of getting into schools and working on the school climate piece, making schools more welcoming, turning them into places where students want to be. It's a tremendous amount of work, but it's worth it.
5. Why is it important to make schools safe for all students?
If it's not safe for all of them, you never know when it's not going to be safe for any of them. This can't be a selective thing just for one group, like the jocks or the druggies. We've got to provide opportunities for all kids to reach their potential, not just the ones we like, that are nice to look at or fall within our socioeconomic income bracket. It has to be everybody.
