New research shows 1 in 3 LGBT students have attempted suicide.
Researchers at Dublin City University found that 1 in 2 school principals have dealt with homophobic bullying.
Today marks the start of Stand Up week against homophobia.
Dr James O'Higgins Norman Director of the National Anti-Bullying Research and Resource Centre at DCU, says there's a need for further education and training on the topic for school leaders - and parents also have a role to play.
"Very few parents anticipate that their child will be the bully - parents need to recognise that", said Dr. Higgins. "They should speak to them about that and educate them that certain ways of behaving can cause hurt and distress to other children."
The words follow another finding in the report, which revealed that some school principals thought that children were sometimes too young to understand the actual meaning of the words they use.
However, some school principals thought that children were sometimes too young to understand the actual meaning of the words they use.
Dr O’Higgins added: “They didn’t naturally or automatically see the name calling as some form of homophobic bullying specifically, so that raised some questions in terms of how they understood homophobic bullying.
“But it is an issue that has appeared in primary schools as our research shows now and I think a lot of it relates back to the way that we educate our children about diversity in society and also I suppose specifically in this situation, sexual diversity.”
