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Gay Lubbock High Students Won't Appeal Ruling by 365Gay.com from the Web, April 6, 2004 Lubbock, TX -- Students who sought to organize a Gay Straight Alliance at Lubbock High School will not appeal a court ruling that said the school board could not be forced to let the group meet on campus. Last month a federal judge ruled that the school district had not violate the student's rights when it refused to recognize the group. U.S. District Judge Sam R. Cummings ruled that the "group's goals violate well-known policies at Lubbock High School and the district." Cummings said that "the local school officials and parents are in the best position to determine what subject matter is reasonable and will be allowed on LISD campuses." The ruling said that the decision not to allow the group to meet on campus is "an assertion of a school's right not to surrender control of the public school system to students and erode a community's standard of what subject matter is considered obscene and inappropriate." The students were represented by Lambda Legal. The decision not to appeal was made Monday. "It had a lot to do with the kids," Lawyer Brian Chase said. He noted that two of the students involved in the case have graduated from Lubbock High, and two others will graduate next month. Chase said subjecting other students to an appeals process that could last several years "did not seem right." The LISD has won," a jubilant school attorney Ann Manning declared. The decision not to appeal ends a court battle that began July 8 and marked the first loss in a Gay Straight Alliance lawsuit for Lamba Legal. Manning said that she has heard from other school boards across the country either fighting the establishment of Gay Straight Alliances or attempting to shut them down. "This is the first and only victory for a school district in the United States. It could be a pattern by which school district's could maintain keeping clubs based on sex and sexual activity out of the purview of the Equal Access Act," Manning said. |
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