Posted on 05/08/2005 7:17:22 AM PDT by madprof98
White County has become center of emotional clash over equal rights
Cleveland --- A year and half ago, White County High School student Abby Farrar told a friend she had a crush on a classmate --- a girl.
Soon came the stares, followed by vulgarities. Then boys, with a smirk, would block her locker, making her late for classes. Formerly in the gifted program, Abby began making all C's. She started stealing anti-depressants and painkillers prescribed for her diabetic mother. She eventually dropped out of school.
"People would whisper, and you know it's about you," said Abby, now 15. "I didn't want to die, but I thought about it."
Abby is a gay teenager in this postcard sliver of the Appalachian Mountains, where pickup trucks rule dusty roads and billboards breathe Bible verses. White County is also the backdrop for the latest clash between gay rights and conservative Christians, triggered in January when a junior named Kerry Pacer asked the school administration to allow her to form a club for gay students and their supporters.
The town has been on an emotional roller coaster ride ever since. Residents were polarized on the issue of whether the students should be allowed to form the club but banded together when Christian fundamentalists from Kansas picketed the school and some local churches. The controversy has lured the American Civil Liberties Union and gay rights activists, prompting the school district to rethink its policy and the club to rethink its mission.
The club --- Peers Rising in Diverse Education, or PRIDE --- was started by Pacer, a slight, 5-foot 17-year-old with a nose stud and a part-time job serving pastrami at a deli. She got the idea after learning about other gay support clubs in Atlanta and nationwide.
Her efforts drew the attention of the Georgia chapter of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest gay rights organization, which planned to give her special recognition Saturday night at a $195-per-plate reception in downtown Atlanta. Guests such as Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin and Democratic political strategist James Carville were expected to attend. Kerry planned to go with her mother and some school friends.
"We couldn't find a better example of someone who obviously had the courage to speak up in an area where it's difficult to speak up," said Deneen Goddard, an organizer for the event.
Pacer feels grateful and encouraged by the recognition. "I know what I'm doing is good," she said. "They could put as many hurdles as they want, but I'm never giving up."
But in the day-to-day world of White County High, her determination is tested. She and other gay students such as Alex Sherman, Chris Garner and Charlene Hammersen go to their classes and get taunted and bullied. They lean on humor and one another to get through the hallways and to mend their spirits.
White County Public Schools Superintendent Paul Shaw opposes the club, which has met twice and so far has fewer than 10 members, because he believes that an organization based on sexuality does not belong in a high school. He has allowed it, he says, because the students have the legal right to gather and have met all the criteria for an extracurricular club.
But opposition has pushed Shaw and administrators to consider ending all nonacademic activities so that the club is kept out.
At a recent public meeting on the proposal, everyone who spoke was opposed to ending all clubs just to make PRIDE impossible.
Many of the parents said they feared that, without service clubs and sports, their children would be at a disadvantage when applying for college.
Besides, said resident Carol Ann Lightsey, "I believe there should be a place where these kids could go and unload when they are being bullied."
Harassment and hate
Those incidents still happen, and sometimes they drive students away from the school.
Chris Garner, 16, says he was called "faggot" and hit in the hallways last year. He said he was whacked in the back of his head with a two-by-four in construction class. Six months later, Chris gave up on White County High. He's now being home schooled.
Shaw acknowledges bullying incidents and says that they are being investigated, but he isn't convinced that all gay students are victims. "They have strong personalities as well" and invite trouble, too, he said.
Many times, Shaw said, harassment allegations turn out to be a "he said, she said," with no clear solution. He declined to discuss individual complaints, but said, "It's our job to provide a safe environment for academic learning."
The controversy "has made our community look at ourselves," said Shaw, a grandfather who has been an educator for more than 30 years.
That reflection was evident in March when eight members of Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan., staged a vitriolic protest in Cleveland on a Sunday morning. They hurled insults at worshippers for not condemning homosexuality strongly enough. Many Christian moderates were disgusted.
"We don't need these people to tell me how to live," said Rolland Hunnicutt, 43, who has two daughters attending the high school. He opposes the PRIDE club but doesn't appreciate outsiders entering the fray. "We were told to ignore these people, bite our tongue, but it's hard. It makes it very difficult to pray for people like these."
Birth of a club
Ninety miles north of downtown Atlanta, more than 700 students are packed into the nondescript, red-brick White County High School building. The girls wear capri pants and boys don cargo shorts, just like high school students in Atlanta.
But here, an organization like PRIDE is an anomaly. The school requires that the vice principal attend every meeting.
Originally called the Gay-Straight Alliance, the group was renamed and became a more inclusive anti-bullying club. Last week, Pacer and a handful of students, gay and straight, listed goals to achieve next year if the club still exists: community service, guest speakers, field trips and fund-raisers.
Pacer was inspired to create PRIDE after attending a meeting of the Gainesville chapter of PFLAG --- Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays --- which her mother and other parents formed in January after discovering enough families with gay children in Hall and White counties.
There Kerry found out about other gay support clubs. Her determination grew stronger when a vice principal at White County High forbade her to hang up two posters urging tolerance for families with same-sex parents.
Now, at the center of the controversy, she has learned that fame --- and change --- comes at a price. Several weeks ago she walked into Glenda's, a local diner, with her friend Charlene Hammersen. Heads turned and faces glared, Kerry remembers. She felt unwelcome in the eatery, where she had dined who knows how many times before.
Then there were the letters to the editor of the local paper, the White County News-Telegraph.
"If we stand idly by and allow this to happen, then we as Christians, professed to be saved by God, will answer come Judgment Day," wrote a local minister, Teddy Allen. His was one of many expressing such sentiments.
Pacer was surprised. "Everybody was getting mad at such a small issue," she said. "They see it as a total corruption. They say we're trying to turn people gay or we're trying to recruit gays. It's awful. People have said that to me."
Slow acceptance
Pacer wears hip-hugging jeans and cherishes her Plymouth Neon. After school, she heads to her $6-an-hour job as a waitress and cook. The native of a Baltimore suburb is the middle child of three of divorced parents. She lives with her mother, a real estate agent; her father is a DeKalb County teacher.
Savannah Pacer, 52, says her daughter's safety is her No. 1 concern. "I worry about somebody trying to harm her," she said. But she's proud of her daughter's courage. "I'm learning from her."
So are others.
Before accepting their own homosexuality, Charlene Hammersen and Alex Sherman were like the other kids --- they called Kerry names. Now they hug each other freely in school hallways.
For Alex, 16, who is the club's vice president, ''coming out'' to his parents was a cold lesson in reality. ''They just didn't want to talk about it," said Alex, who is on the swimming and tennis teams.
On April 30, the two said a boy threw a piece of jagged concrete at them near their locker. It hit Alex's left shin.
Because of what the gay students at White County High go through, Pacer believes that PRIDE must succeed. "They'll be hurting us more by taking the club away. They'll be saying it's OK to bully us," she said.
The club, and Kerry herself, brought Abby back to White County High in February. Four months earlier, Abby spent a week at the Riverwoods Southern Regional Psychiatric Center in Riverdale, where she opened up to a therapist about her homosexuality, the harassment and the junk food she gorged on to hide her feelings.
She went to a night school in Dahlonega where she wouldn't be picked on. Then she read about Kerry Pacer.
Kerry's going to get hurt, Abby, who is 5-foot-9, remembers thinking. She's so little; I'm going to be her bodyguard.
Soon, Abby re-enrolled at White County High as a sophomore.
I like Samuel Clemmons view on raisig children-- shove them in a barrel and nail the lid shut -feed and water them through a hole -until they get about 20 or so -then let 'em out.
And by doing so, she victimized this girl. She caused her embarasment, and probably a feeling of being stocked, a subject of someones sick fantasies of performing lewid sexual acts, which may be against HER beliefs, and how she was born.(normal) The abnormal who is sick and needs help, cries "victim", and a hoard of imoral sinners decend on an otherwize peaceful town and slander it.
Thinking equals responsibility.
Actually if you really want to take it to an extreme.
Thanks to hate crime (thought crime laws) and the constant PC double speak, Thinking equals LIABILITY in the courts.
Fear is strength, and all those other orwellian mottos.
cannabalism is ok today as it seems practiced by homosexuals most often let the eat each other for their last meal.
At least one bit of common sense from an adult involved in this.
This is a sex club. In high school! It is not for teens interested in friendships with members of the same sex. It is for teens practicing or wanting to practice certain specific sex acts. Why not form a club for teen age boys wanting to make out with girls?
A one-sided story, indeed. Read between the lines, though, and you'll see this as one of the only sentences that made any sense:
"Shaw acknowledges bullying incidents and says that they are being investigated, but he isn't convinced that all gay students are victims. "They have strong personalities as well" and invite trouble, too, he said."
Ah, gays asking for trouble??? After all, they're PROUD of being something they should be ashamed of. It's amazing, though, to think that queers will go through all the harrassment just so they can remain el disgusto. Why not just be normal and good? The gays are totally deluded.
Oddly enough, they didn't seem to need a support group. I wonder what that acronym would be? Students Living Under The Sheets? No, that name would never fly. Too much truth in it.
So a world devoid of Historians, Writers, Artists (all sorts), Philosophers, Anthropologist, Linguists, etc, etc, is a good world to live in? Education really is more that just a job.
LOL, and Whoa!
Dan
(c;
As far as this girl goes, the answer here is to teach these children to treat each other with respect even if they disagree. There is no excuse for bullying, unkindness or rudeness in school. If kids were taught how to act properly there would be no need of these clubs (which should be outside of the school anyway).
Good one.
I always advocated sending teenagers (13-19) to isolated mountains or islands, having them work from dawn til drop, teaching them nothing but the ethic of hard work.
When 20 they may return to civilization.
"Abby is a gay teenager in this postcard sliver of the Appalachian Mountains..."
"The only things missing were the banjoes."
And probably a few teeth! :D
ping.
How many fifteen year olds have even made a career choice, much less been past puberty long enough to proclaim that for the rest of their un-natural life they shall selfishly reserve their sexual lusts and acts to members of their very own gender? Not a damn one, is the correct answer. Anyone who argues otherwise, has a homosexual driven agenda that they crave to force upon innocent youth, before they have enough sense and experience to realise
how stupid that premise is.
The same sonovabitches who are out to abort as many babies as they can possibly get away with, are the same ones desperately trying to convince the kids who survived the threat of being aborted, that they are hoplessly and incurably, homosexuals.
Ever notice how the liberal Democrats tell us that the government can fix everything-everything that is except for what is more benefical to the liberal's perverted agenda, if it is defined as un-fixable? Homosexuality, for instance.
Great post! You had me laughing.
It is normal for a certain percentage of heterosexual 13-year-olds to have crushes on someone of the same sex (usually someone older, like a senior, college student or teacher). They get over it.
It is interesting the "hippie" generation that is for "peace" has to have a lot of loud, frenetic, amplified music...
LOL, cool rant. You go, girl!
(WAAH -- Werehorses Are Allright, Honest?)
Dan
(c8
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.