The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is taking up the battle of two more students who are fighting to get a Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) established in their school.
On April 18, the ACLU sent a letter to the superintendent of the Polk County School Board on behalf of Rory Teal and Brenna Pelland, two seventeen-year-old 11th graders at Kathleen High School. The students have been working to establish a GSA since November 2012, but have been blocked by school officials, according to the ACLU.
“The bullying has been really tough at our school, and having this club would give kids a safe place to be themselves and it would put a stop to a lot of the bullying,” Pelland said in a media release. “We just want our school to be a place where kids are respected for who they are, and a GSA can help make that happen.”
Rory said they’re “really disappointed” that their school hasn’t answered the request yet.
“With the end of the year coming up, we didn’t want to have to wait until next year to have the club meet to start trying to make KHS safer,” she said in a media release. “We started doing research and found out that the ACLU had helped a GSA a few counties over.”
She’s referring to the situation involving 14-year-old Bayli Silberstein’s request to create a GSA at Carver Middle School in Lake County.
“Brenna and Rory have a clearly-established right to create a GSA and to start working to make Kathleen High School a safer and more welcoming place for all students,” stated ACLU of Florida LGBT Policy Strategist Daniel Tilley. “We hope that school administrators recognize that, and that they give the GSA the same status and treatment as any other student club, as the law requires.”
The ACLU sent a public records request to the district to try to determine the cause of the delay, and administrators responded that they were backlogged with club requests. However, according to the ACLU’s findings, since July 2012 the total number of applications filed was two.
Read a copy of the ACLU’s letter to the superintendent of the Polk County School Board.
