FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: media@aclu.org
TAMPA - The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida today issued a stern
warning to the Hillsborough County School Board and the Extracurricular Clubs
Task Force that denying students' right to form Gay-Straight Alliances violates
federal law.
"School officials should not silence these student-initiated debates
and discussions," said Rob Rosenwald, Director of the ACLU of Florida's LGBT
Advocacy Project. "Silencing ideas in a non-curricular setting because
some people don't like them is not only incompatible with the educational values
of open inquiry and wide-ranging debate -- it is against the law."
The ACLU warning was delivered today in a letter to the school board, the
superintendent and the task force chairman and was prompted by an upcoming
meeting on February 8 of the Extracurricular Clubs Task Force. The school board
has charged the task force with the job of evaluating the school district's
policies on extracurricular clubs in the district's secondary schools after
parents associated with the Southern Baptist Convention delivered petitions
objecting to the existence of GSAs in the schools.
The ACLU letter cited the federal Equal Access Act, which states that if a
public high school allows any student group whose purpose is not directly
related to the school's curriculum to meet on school grounds during lunch, free
periods, and before or after school, then it can't deny other student groups the
same access to the school because of the content of their proposed discussions.
Schools may not pick and choose among clubs based on what they think students
should or should not discuss.
The Equal Access Act was signed into law in 1984 after being heavily promoted
by religious groups who wanted to ensure that students could form Christian
clubs in public schools. The authors of the law understood that if this right
were extended to students who wanted to start religious clubs, then it must be
extended to all students.
The ACLU of Florida's letter informed the Hillsborough County School Board
that its organization is deeply committed to protecting the federally protected
rights of GSAs. For instance, when a school board in Boyd County, Kentucky
recently elected not to honor the Equal Access Act, it paid $150,000 in
attorneys' fees after a court held that its exclusion of a GSA was in violation
of the Equal Access Act.
"Anti-gay harassment and violence are widespread among teenagers, especially
in schools," Rosenwald said. "Some of the most common epithets that teens use
today to disparage each other are 'faggot,' 'dyke,' and 'queer.' A
disproportionate amount of physical violence against gay men, lesbians,
bisexuals, and transgender people of all ages is perpetrated by teenage
boys.
"Gay/straight alliances help to combat verbal and physical harassment. They
create a space where students can come together to share their experiences, to
discuss anti-gay attitudes they may experience in school or to debate different
perspectives on gay-related issues. Students talking openly and honestly with
other students is a uniquely effective way of making young people aware of the
harms caused by discrimination and violence."
The full text of the ACLU of Florida's letter can be found online at: http://www.aclufl.org/issues/lesbian_gay_rights/
GSAHillsboroughCountyLetter.pdf
For more information about LGBT youth and schools, go to http://www.aclu.org/getequal/scho/index.html
