More legal wrangling over a Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) in Lake County Schools.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has filed a lawsuit on behalf of Hannah Faughnan, 12, a seventh-grader who is attempting to form a GSA at Carver Middle School. Faughnan is representing a group of students who want to create the GSA.
This is the second lawsuit the ACLU has filed against the Lake County School Board in 2013. Last time, the ACLU was representing openly bisexual Bayli Silberstein, who at the time was a 14-year-old 8th grader at Carver Middle School. School officials simply ignored her request for a GSA until the ACLU got involved and the media began covering the story. After months of legal wrangling and school board meeting debates, a judge granted Silberstein permission to form the club for the remainder of her 8th grade year, which ended in the summer of 2013. That settlement has expired, Bayli has moved onto high school and now, the GSA no longer meets at Carver Middle School.
While the club was active, the members elected Faughnan vice president. According to the ACLU, Faughnan and her friends have tried to reorganize the GSA under the school club rules eventually approved by the school board, but they’ve run into administrative roadblocks similar to last time.
“Bullying has been a real problem for a lot of my friends here at Carver,” said Faughnon in a media release. “When the GSA got to meet last year, we talked about ideas to help make things better for everyone this school year. It’s frustrating that we haven’t been able to do anything yet, especially because other clubs have already been meeting but we have not been allowed to meet.”
The districts new club rules required all school clubs to reapply, and the GSA did so in October. The ACLU followed up Dec. 5, and report that the district attorney said the superintendent denied the GSA application, stating that it does not represent an extension of school curriculum. However, according to the ACLU, other non-curriculum clubs have been approved across the district.
“It seems there’s nothing the school board won’t do to keep the students at Carver Middle School from their legally-protected right to start a GSA and fight bullying and discrimination at their school,” said Daniel Tilley, staff attorney for the ACLU of Florida, in a media release. “It’s clear that the school board’s new club policy was just the latest tool to try to stop these students. What’s most disappointing is that as these kids are facing bullying in the classrooms, they’re being subjected to a more sophisticated kind of bullying from the officials who should be protecting them.”
Tilley said the school board’s response to what these kids are doing is the perfect example of why a GSA is so important.
“I’m proud of what Hannah and her friends are doing to make things better at Carver,” said Janine Faughnan, Hannah’s mother.”This is a group of kids dedicated to working together to make their school a better place. I don’t understand why the school administrators, who are supposed to be supporting things to keep our kids safe, won’t let them do that.”
Read the complaint filed by the ACLU in the United States District Court, Middle District.
