It always seems like you need to involve a court order and the ACLU just to get a gay-straight alliance set up at your high school.
Two Florida high school students on Tuesday sued their school board because they were not allowed to form a club that promotes the tolerance of gays.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida filed the suit Tuesday in federal court on behalf of Yulee High School students Hannah Page, a freshman, and Jacob Brock, a junior.
The lawsuit claims violations of the First Amendment and the Federal Equal Access Act. The act requires schools to grant access and recognition to a Gay-Straight Alliance and other groups if the school allows any extracurricular group to meet on campus, said ACLU attorney Robert F. Rosenwald.
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How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
âWe just want the club so that straight and gay kids can get together to talk about harassment and discrimination against gay kids in an open environment. The school is discriminating against us and thatâs exactly the kind of thing we want to prevent,â she said.
John L. Ruis, the school districtâs superintendent, said in a letter to Rosenwald that âa club highlighting sexual orientations will not be permitted as it would violate school board policy.â The Nassau County School Board was served with the lawsuit. [AP]
christopher Inverarity
Yawn. Sue, win…next! Fundies = FAIL.
dgz
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29131231/
(reporting that school board voted 6-3 to approve the GSA)
um, crisis resolved (?)
sounds like a terrible school. poor kids.
Darth Paul
Note to Queerty: not all gay sex involves butts. There’s a certain half of us called lesbians that use another organ.
David Hauslaib
Of course not. But I truly believe it’s anal sex between two guys that turns more people off than some hot girl-on-girl.
JPinWeHo
@Darth Paul: of course, even lesbians can engage in butt sex, they do have butts.
Sebbe
@ David – Well said and definitely true.
Sebbe
and btw – looking back it would have been really nice if there had been a GSA at my boarding school in the late 90s. I was the only gay person I knew in the woods of Connecticut then. I still imagine that private schools can do whatever the hell they want.
alexander
So ridiculous. I kinda wish I was there back in HS just to be part of this crap and then win and march the halls with the our GSA.
Jaroslaw
Part of the problem is the archaic school board system. I remember being part of something in High School where we came it contact with kids from all over the world and this girl from Australia just thought every little hamlet, burg, city and town having their own schoolboard with completely different and contradictory policies of their own was just absurd. I of course chafed since my Uncle was president of the school board and worked very hard on it, but in further thinking about it, one standard statewide makes more sense.
Sebbe
@Jaroslaw – I think it depends on where you are in the country. In New England, I know there is a very strong tradition of towns (small and large) setting there own agenda. Nowhere in New England is there even ANY form of County government/taxes/regulation/boards. Which I know in other places around the country is not the case.
That said, the states should have minimal standards, but good luck with that, what politician is going to say we are taking local control away and placing it in the hands of the states.
Jaroslaw
Sebbe- hear ya, but when the politicians at every level make every other decision, they say it is the world economy, world trade, world whatever; or they say ‘we need a world class (fill in the blank)” I think it can be a great disservice to children, as evidenced by this post, that every sort of small minded, bigoted often uneducated person can run for school board and then set the agenda. American’s United for Separation of church & state had some very interesting books that documented just this sort of thing where the religious right infiltrated the school boards. Luckily for the most part it didn’t last when they were exposed but still it is chilling.
It would be MUCH harder to be closed minded at the state level when so many more people & educated people would be present. One would hope! đ
Nate in SLC
@dgz:
The link you referenced is discussing a situation in Pennsylvania. This school is in Florida…
Sebbe
@Jaroslaw –
I agree with you, but unfortunately that is not the system of government we are stuck with in this country. The U.S. is a federalist form of government where powers are inherently devolved locally, first to the states and then to smaller local entities.
I personally would be happier with a parliamentary and more unitary system, but you imagine trying to dissolve the union and form a better form of government. While we are it, maybe we can join Canada and let the right wingers and red-staters form Jesus land.