School board directors overseeing Bangor Area High School in Pennsylvania have agreed that the school can have a gay-straight alliance, just as long as students provide a signed parental permission slip to join (something that no other school club requires).
School board director Kevin Pruett said, “Folks are uncomfortable with clubs of this type. It’s not like the chess club.” But fellow school board director Frank Addessi countered Pruett’s thinking by saying that “a child in a hostile home environment could risk getting beaten or thrown out of his or her home if he or she came out as gay or supported gay rights.”
When the GSA realized that the school would require members to first get parental permission, they renamed themselves Bangor’s Safe School Club and clarified that they only seek to provide a welcoming environment to all students, discuss current issues and promote anti-bullying messages for everyone.
So Pruett thinks that “folks” are uncomfortable with an anti-bullying student group that doesn’t even mention the word “gay” in their name? What a dillhole.
How about we take this to the next level?
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the crustybastard
FTFA: School Directors Pruett and Pamela Colton threw their support behind permission slips. Signatures were required to participate in sports, field trips and other school events, so she saw no reason how the district could keep that information from parents. Pruett said some parents may not want their children participating in clubs of this nature…”Folks are uncomfortable with clubs of this type. It’s not like the chess club…”
So the school directors agree that a GSA requires permission slips because it’s not like chess club, it’s more like sports?
I smell Santorum voters.
Billy
Yet another example of “passive” bullying our glbt youth!!
kylew
I totally agree with people’s disapproval for the reasons mentioned in the article above BUT I also think that this may be a symptom of the fact that we all live in an increasingly litigious society and because lawyers can prove that black is white nowaday in a court of law, the powers that be may have felt that they need the legal protection of parental consent, just as with female contraception.
Chad
I am from PA and it is NOT like this in all PA schools that have a student run GLBT club.
Ian
@kylew: As a gay lawyer who represents both gay and straight clients, I’ll have to disagree with you on this. The school board’s decision is not caused by lawyers or the legal system. It’s plain vanilla homophobia and heterosexism in not-so-clever guise. Call it for what it is. Explaining or condoning it as some form of “defensive strategy” is nonsense.
the crustybastard
@kylew:
Your comparison fails. There is no state or federal law requiring minors secure parental consent for contraception, male or female. None.
I agree with Ian. You’re talking out of your ass.
Alexis Serrano
I live about 45 minutes from Bangor and I’ve recently started a GSA at my school. We’re taking it to the school board in about two weeks (I’m a senior). I’m truly scared that this will be the case in my situation too…
Haightmale
This is so disturbing to me. When I heard about the Texas cheerleader I thought, what if the school called his parents and said we saw your son making out with another dude, and the parents were unaware. That could create a nightmare – and schools should never do that. Of course the over 4,000 school districts probably have 4,000 policies.
When I read about the kids in the Poconos, I was more disturbed. Two school board members heard the possible ramifications of a “permission slip,” and said essentially that they don’t care. I wrote about both of these scenarios today. A iss is just a kiss unless your a gay cheerleader in Alice Texas. http://www.jiveinthe415.com/2011/10/discrimination-motivates-our-resolve-to.html
http://www.jiveinthe415.com/
Roy
Just a Canadian
Dear Mr. Kevin Pruett I have an idea that I would like to try on you to see if you would like it. Each time one of those gay kids you feel should be forced to out themselves is harmed either by school bullies or their by their own parents rejecting them you get one swift kick in the ass. Maybe you would finally get it as to what those kids rightly fear so much. I wanted to say something else but I just didn’t want to be edited out.
terry decker
Those who know Bangor know it is a backwards laughing stock. It is at the eastern most part of Pennsyltucky. The parents are crude and ignorant while the kids need cameras on the school busses and armed/marked security on campus. They are big on adultry, domestic violence and inbreeding. I am not surprised by their homophobia in the least. The kids who promoted this club are extremely brave or have a deathwish.