White County to drop gay club
Academics-only rule in making
By CHARLES YOO, ajc.com from the Web, April 4, 2005
Atlanta, GA -- White County public schools administrators plan to eliminate nonacademic clubs at the county high school only days after permitting a controversial group for gay students and supporters to meet at the school.
That means the club, Peers Rising in Diversity Education, formerly the Gay-Straight Alliance, could exist only until the end of the current school year.
Superintendent Paul Shaw said on Sunday the plan is part of broad policy changes that the Board of Education is considering.
The elimination of "non-curricular" clubs is the idea of principal Bryan Dorsey, a new school administrator who came to White County High School in January, Shaw said.
"We're trying to focus on the academics," Shaw said. "We'll still have curricular clubs, and we'll still have athletics."
The American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia had taken up the students' cause and secured permission to form the gay support group.
"It's constitutionally suspect. We are researching the law, and all litigation options remain open," Beth Littrell, staff attorney for ACLU, said Sunday.
"It seems to be a drastic measure designed to silence the free speech of few students."
Under the new proposal, a few clubs would disappear, including Fellowship of Christian Athletes, the Interact Club and Key Club.
Controversy has dogged the county since some students asked in January to form what then was called the Gay-Straight Alliance to provide a safe place for gay students and their sympathizers to meet.
Townspeople got upset. About 250 people attended a White County Board of Education meeting Feb. 24.
The controversy also drew a group of Christian fundamentalists from Kansas, who staged vitriolic demonstrations in front of churches and White County High.
The townspeople countered the protest with their own protest, telling the out-of-towners to leave Cleveland.
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