Read This, Save Lives: A Teacher

Book excerpt: Read This, Save Lives has been written by 16 year old Sameer Jha to help teachers create classrooms and schools where gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer students can thrive. This book has deep personal relevance for Sameer, because he was severely bullied for being different in elementary and middle school. As he grew older, he learned more about his own identity and came out as queer and trans. He found acceptance, as well as a new purpose: to put an end to anti-LGBTQ+ bullying in schools. Today, Sameer has become an activist, an educator, and the founder of a non-profit called The Empathy Alliance. He is a Congressional Silver Medal recipient, has been named one of the top 10 trans youth activists in America, and has reached over 1 million people with his message promoting LGBTQ+ student safety. This book tells the story of Sameer's journey, using specific incidents to illustrate important lessons about LGBTQ+ youth needs and how to meet them. Find more than a 100 actionable tips created with busy, resource constrained teachers in mind. An entire chapter is devoted to an extraordinary teacher who has transformed her own school using many of the same principles included in this guide. Read This, Save Lives is brimming with expert quotes, sobering statistics, cutting edge research, critical terminology, real world case studies, and resources from some of the best LGBTQ+ rights organizations in the country. Get ready to be inspired by one of the few books on the topic of LGBTQ+ youth safety that has actually been written by an LGBTQ+ youth!