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Cath. School
Refuses To Acknowledge
Mat Shepard
Scholarship
by 365Gay.com
from the Web, May 17, 2005
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Gilbertville, Iowa -- As
graduating honor students at Don Bosco High School in Gilbertville, Iowa rise
one by one to accept university scholarships from corporations and alumni one
student will remain seated because the Catholic school refuses to acknowledge
she is the recipient of a Matthew Shepard scholarship.
Kristin Langner has been awarded this year's Shepard scholarship -- named in
honor of the university student who was murdered in an anti-gay hate crime in
1998 in Wyoming. The Matthew Shepard Scholarship will enable Langner to
attend the University of Northern Iowa where she hopes to major in business and
then go on to law school.
Langner says she was told by the principal of Don Bosco that the scholarship
would be mentioned in passing, along with the other scholarships but that no one
from the Matthew Shepard Scholarship fund could attend the graduation ceremony.
Other students receiving bursaries or scholarships will have them presented by
the organization sponsoring them. To the lesbian student that is
discrimination.
"I told him [the school's principal] you know, hey I received this scholarship
and he told me it was a sensitive issue and he needed some time to think about
it," she told the Waterloo Courier.
Langner says that the principal talked with the Archdiocese in Dubuque and his
decision was upheld.
"I was very disappointed, it hurt a lot because I got this really great
scholarship and I was really excited and then I found this out that they won't
let them come in," Langner told the paper.
Michael Bowser also sees it as discrimination. He was the 2002 Shepard
scholarship winner and offered to make the presentation to Langner until the
principal told him not to bother coming to the graduation.
Langner says her friends will hand out ribbons in honor of her at the awards
ceremony. And she's speaking out so other students won't have the same
problem.
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