The Okeechobee (I don't know how to pronounce it either) County School Board can stop a group of students organized as a Gay-Straight Alliance club from meeting on school property, but they can't stop it from existing. That's the good news from this report on 365gay.com.
The ACLU has filed suit on the students behalf, pointing out that the school board allows a number of extracurricular clubs, like the Fellowship of Christian Athletes for example, to meet at Okeechobee High School and that the board unlawfully discriminated against the Gay-Straight Alliance.
The best part of the story is that the Alliance is currently active, meeting at a local restaurant, and includes approximately 50 members. Good for them!
Here's a great quote:
“Florida’s gay and lesbian students deserve schools that are places of learning, not training camps for intolerance, intimidation and violence," said Robert Rosenwald, Director of the ACLU of Florida’s LGBT Advocacy Project.
Well said. Some of the most important things I learned in high school were lessons taught outside of the classroom. Intollerance should not be one of them.
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It's pronounced OH-KEY-CH-OH-BEE.
ReplyDeleteI'm a class of '93 graduation from Okeechobee High School...and a lesbian. I was not out--to myself or anyone--until college. In high school, I was as close to the ideal student as you could probably get; 3 sports, 5th in my class, clubs, science fairs, academic team and on and on and on. I've often thought of myself as the type of person OHS would be proud to count as an alumni...now, I can't help but think I would be shunned and ostracized for the very small portion of my life that falls outside the limits of my alma mater's "tolerance".
My surprise at this course of action, actually surprises me. After all, we are talking about an area that has yet to fully accept that the Civil Rights Act was actually passed.