Mail this page School told to let gay-rights club meet

Louisville Courier Journal ^ | 4/19/03 | Mark Pitsch

[Chancellor Palpatine]

A federal judge ordered Boyd County High School yesterday to let a student gay-rights group meet and use school facilities.

Kaye King, a Boyd County High teacher and the adviser of the gay-straight alliance, was one of the suit's plaintiffs. A federal judge ruled that the group has a right to meet.

Boyd County superintendent Bill Capehart and the other defendants in the gay-straight alliance's case have been asked to respond to the judge's ruling within 20 days. In a 47-page ruling, U.S. District Judge David L. Bunning found that the gay-straight alliance at the high school has ''a strong likelihood'' of winning its lawsuit that claimed school and district officials violated the federal Equal Access Act by not allowing the group to meet.

Despite a county school board decision in December to bar nonacademic clubs from the high school, several student groups met anyway this spring and used school facilities, while the alliance was prevented from doing so, Bunning concluded.

That violated the federal law, which says that if a school allows one noncurricular group to meet it cannot bar others based on religion, political orientation or philosophy, Bunning said.

[Chancellor Palpatine]

As I remember, a the people opposing this were filmed at a rally. I think the average age was over 70, and it was a mighty thin crowd.

And before everybody gets to shrieking about judges, this is the son of Senator Jim Bunning (R-Ky), who has a lifetime ACU rating of about a zillion.

[Chancellor Palpatine]

.

[jbstrick]

Will the school allow a conservative or Christian group to meet?

[Chancellor Palpatine]

yep.

[bvw]

And the school is having a job fair for exotic naked dancers! What a good way for high school students to earn some cash and the side! And to make those all important contacts!

I'm sure as shootin' Jim Bunning is right proud of his son! A man who knows wrong from right! What a JUDGE!

With such Judges we'll never have to worry about the future -- why we soon won't have any to worry about! Hooray, hooray!

[knud99]

As I remember, a the people opposing this were filmed at a rally. I think the average age was over 70, and it was a mighty thin crowd.

You probably saw the rally that was purportedly organized by outsiders, namely the KKK. Believe me, this is a very conservative area (I graduated for BCHS), but nobody wanted to be associated with the KKK by attending that rally.

[Caipirabob]

A federal judge ordered Boyd County High School yesterday to let a student gay-rights group meet and use school facilities.

Sounds like they'd better expand the janitorial staff.

[dannyk]

"Will the school allow a conservative or Christian group to meet?"

That's a good questions - what about this one: Will the school allow other sex clubs on campus?

Thats whats at the core of this. Duh - this is a male on male teenage sex club. What other campus clubs have the right to center around sexual themes? What a bunch of idiots.

[george wythe]

If the allegations in this article are true, conservatives were caught using a double standard and flaunting the law.

First of all, the school board had no authority to ban all the non-academic clubs:

the school board violated the Kentucky Education Reform Act when it voted to ban clubs because that is a decision for school councils to make.

Then the school board went even further into illegal territory by enforcing the ban only against the Gay-Straight Alliance club:

despite the ban several noncurricular student groups continued to meet at school while the alliance was barred from doing so

I hope this article is incorrect. I don't picture conservatives as dirty tricksters.

[Kuksool]

The janitors had better clean the bathrooms every hour!

[tessalu]

No sex club of any kind should be meeting on school grounds, not hetero, not homo.

[Libertarianize the GOP]

ping

[Kuksool]

{Believe me, this is a very conservative area (I graduated for BCHS)}

This is exactly why the Gay Gestapo is so eager to start a recruitng camp there. The Gay Gestapo wishes to "free" conservatives from their "homophobia."

[Kuksool]

The school board should respond by encouraging kids to start a straight pride club.

[Dog Gone]

I hate these disputes. If you open the door to the schools for any non-academic club, then you have to open the doors to all.

The problem is that the leftwing is the ones with all the clubs. That's our fault, and generally the result of leftwing faculty taking the lead in these matters, while conservative parents recoil in horror when they visit the school and see all the posters for leftwing club meetings.

We really have two choices. Get involved as parents in organizing other clubs so that the students have some choices, or work to shut down access to all clubs entirely.

But we can't simply complain about clubs we don't like. Equal access is constitutionally protected, and many of us around here think that document is important.

[Sonny M]

Here's a funny story. When I was in high school, there was an attempt to form a gay club (this was a catholic high school to boot). There wasn't any real controversy. Now me and some friends were meeting up at my locker after school, when someone remebered that the first gay club meeting was going to be held, and it was right across from my locker. So, about 5 or 6 of us, out of curiousity, decided to see who was going to show up. Now a little background, my friends in this case, were all black, and 6 feet, and taller, some of them were on the football team, but none of them had any bad intentions. We stayed there, and you would see kids step into the hallway, and just turn around, one kid walked, saw us, and just kept on walking straight down. In the end, the club was cancelled, and the school said something to the effect of, the kids felt intimidated by a possible hostile presence. I don't think the gay club ever got started again there and we were not there to intimidate, we, as high school kids are, just wanted to see who in our class might be gay.

[Kuksool]

Below is a link to what I am refering to.

"5 arrested at gay sex site"

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/843186/posts

[ppaul]

It's interesting to note that when today's teenagers want to make a derogatory comment about someone, instead of saying, "Oh, he's so gross, or he's such a dufus, they say, "Oh, he's so gay! Years of school officials trying to force feed the homo agenda to children is backfiring bigtime.

[First Amendment]

The school board should respond by encouraging kids to start a straight pride club.

http://www.abidingtruth.com/ has a lot of info on how schools - high schools and colleges - can stnad up for normalcy with clubs and free speech and such. This website (out of Sacramento) has a lot of info that can be printed up. Great source.