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School
Board
Asks
Students If They're Gay
by
365Gay.com from the Web, September 2, 2006
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New York City -- As high
school students head back to classes for the start of a new year districts
across the country face a patchwork of policies regarding LGBT students.
While the number of Gay-Straight clubs grows nationwide some school boards have
dug in their heels to block LGBT students from organizing.
Students returning to classes in the Rowan-Salisbury School System in North
Carolina will face what is described as the most repressive regulations in the
country. The school board voted last month to bar what it called sex-based
clubs at the school and to declare the Gay-Straight Alliance fit that criterion.
The recommendation to amend the policy and define the GSA as a sex club was
based on the school district's existing mandate for abstinence-only sex
education.
Schools in several states have or are considering regulations requiring parental
approval to join school clubs.
In Georgia a federal judge ruled in July that White County High School must
allow students in the gay-straight alliance club to meet on campus. But
Perry McGuire, the Republican candidate for Georgia Attorney General, says that
allowing Gay Straight Alliances in schools is "much like allowing a pedophile
club or a gambling club to meet at school."
In the last session of the Utah legislature state Chris Buttars (R) called for a
bill that would have barred cities and the state government from offering the
benefits and then proposed a bill to ban gay-straight alliances in schools.
On the Senate floor he said GSAs are a recruiting tool for gays and are "tearing
down the moral pillars of society." The measure died in the legislature.
The need for GSAs was highlighted in a report issued in April showing
gay-bashing remains a major problem in the nation's schools. The National
School Climate Survey was released in Washington by the Gay, Lesbian and
Straight Education Network.
Three-quarters of students surveyed across America said that over the past year
they heard derogatory remarks such as "faggot" or "dyke" frequently or often at
school, and nearly nine out of ten reported hearing "that's so gay" or "you're
so gay" -- meaning stupid or worthless -- frequently or often.
Over a third of students said they experienced physical harassment at school on
the basis of sexual orientation and more than a quarter on the basis of their
gender expression.
Nearly one-in-five students reported they had been physically assaulted because
of their sexual orientation and over a tenth because of their gender expression.
Yet while the issue of protecting gay students and whether GSAs should be
recognized roils school districts across the country one Canadian school board
is taking a pro-active approach.
The Toronto School Board is launching a major survey of its students this fall
to help set a policy to better serve all of its pupils.
Among the 55 questions being asked of students from junior kindergarten to grade
12 is whether they are "lesbian, transgendered, bisexual, queer or
two-spirited". There is also a box to indicate "don't know".
Other questions involve race and whether they receive breakfast at home.
The Toronto board has prided itself on gay inclusion for more than two decades,
but the survey was prompted by allegations that some schools have a higher
expulsion rate for black students than white pupils. A probe by the
Ontario Human Rights Commission recommended the board to start tracking
suspensions by race and the board expanded that to include all minorities.
Students in grades seven to 12 will be given time in class to fill it out the
survey while students in junior kindergarten and pupils up to Grade 6 will take
the survey home to be filled out with their parents.
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