US: School board to decide whether to allow gay-straight alliance, or cancel all clubs
A School Board in the US is meeting on Monday evening in order to decide whether to allow a gay-straight alliance club on campus, or instead, whether to ban all clubs.
The contentious issue began after a group of students at Carver Middle School in Leesburg attempted to start a gay-straight alliance club.
After the school initially declined to allow the club, the American Civil Liberties Union put pressure on the Lake County School Board to either allow the club, or to ban all similar extracurricular clubs.
A school board meeting to decide the fate of the gay-straight alliance was due to start at 6pm.
“If we can’t take each individual club and decide whether its content is suitable for those youngest students, then we can’t have any of those other clubs,” said Tod Howard of the Lake County School.
One student, 14-year-old Bayli Silberstein, was at the centre of the controversy and claimed that anti-gay bullying was out of hand in Lake County Schools.
“When they have a clear shot to say something without getting in trouble, they’ll usually take it,” Silberstein said.
“A lot of kids are already mad at me, thinking I’m the reason their clubs are getting canceled. But I waited to stand up for what I believe, and I wasn’t going to take no for an answer,” Silberstein continued.
A plane reportedly flew over the school board building on Monday with a banner which read: “Stand with Bayli, not the bullies.”