The Lake County School Board is considering eliminating all extra-curricular clubs, rather than allowing students to form a Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA).
At a workshop on Feb. 4, the Board talking about the rules for student clubs and most members stated that they would prefer to limit student groups in secondary schools.
The discussion follows an American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) request to allow a Lake County Middle School student to create a GSA at her middle school.
On Jan. 23, the ACLU sent a letter to Lake County School Board attorney Stephen Johnson, demanding the district follow through on a request by Carver Middle School student Bayli Silberstein to “confront bullying, educate the school community, and promote acceptance and equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender students, via the formation of a GSA.
According to the letter. Silberstein has been asking school officials whether her request has been denied and if so, would they provide reasons in writing. The request was submitted in early November, and Silberstein and her friend have had a conversation with Principal Mollie Cunningham, “who acknowledged the potential utility of the club but indicated that she needed to consult with the school board.”
Rather than denying the request, the letter states that school officials have been simply ignoring Silberstein.
According to the Orlando Sentinel, school Board members Bill Mathias, Debbie Stivender and Chairwoman Kyleen Fischer spoke in favor of a rule that would ban extra-curricular clubs in secondary schools while fellow board members Tod Howard and Rosanne Brandeburg favored banning extra-curricular clubs only in middle schools.
“The Lake County School Board continues to enable bullies over the safety of their students,” said Michael Farmer, Equality Florida Statewide Field Coordinator, in a media release. “This is just the latest example of the need for the Lake County School Board to adopt an anti-bullying policy and a nondiscrimination policy that includes LGBT students and staff.”
The Lake County School district made headlines in 2011 when Mt. Dora High School teacher Jerry Buell, who after hearing that same-sex couples could marry in New York, posted to Facebook that the news made him want to “vomit” and called gay marriage a “cesspool.” He was suspended from the classroom and the investigation revealed that Buell injected scripture wherever he could at the school, from his district profile to his syllabus.
He headed back into the classroom after orders to scrub the religious content, but teamed up with the notorious anti-gay National Organization for Marriage.
