CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. — The American Civil Liberties Union is threatening legal action against a central Pennsylvania school board that denied students’ request to form a club that would bring together gay and straight students.
The ACLU of Pennsylvania and Equality Pennsylvania sent a letter Tuesday to the Chambersburg Area School District warning that it faces a federal lawsuit if it does not reverse its decision to prohibit formation of a Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA).
Last month, the school board voted 5-4 to deny the request to allow the club at Chambersburg Area Senior High School.
The ACLU says the school board’s action is a violation of federal law.
“Allowing the creation of the Gay-Straight Alliance club is not only the legal thing to do, it is the right thing to do for the district’s students,” said Reggie Shuford, Executive Director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania. “Discrimination and harassment can have a devastating impact on gay youth, and GSAs provide an important and safe forum for students who are concerned about these issues.”
The ACLU cites the 1984 Federal Equal Access Act, which requires secondary schools to allow a variety of student-run religious and non-religious voluntary clubs that meet during “non-instructional” time. This law was later upheld by the U. S. Supreme Court.
The Chambersburg Area School District said in January that the board had concerns regarding the wording of the proposed GSA’s constitution. Disagreement over the wording continued into the next session in February, after which board members voted to deny formation of the club.
According to the district’s rules governing non-academic clubs, a non-sanctioned group would be prohibited from using the school’s morning announcement system or put up flyers advertising its events, may not hold events or fundraisers, and may not participate as a group in Color Day events.The school district has previously granted official approval to a number of non-curricular student groups at the high school, including the Bible Club and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.
“Schools need to understand that they cannot pick and choose which clubs to allow,” said Molly Tack-Hooper, staff attorney for the ACLU of Pennsylvania. “The same law that ensures the right of GSAs to exist also protects the existence of a variety of clubs, from scrapbooking to religious clubs.”
Equality Pennsylvania Executive Director Ted Martin urged the school board to reconsider and “do the right thing” for its LGBT students and their supporters.
Nearly 6,000 people have signed an online petition at Change.org started by 2010 Chambersburg graduate Thomas McCalmont, who said he was bullied daily at the school because of his sexual orientation and was driven to thoughts of suicide by his senior year.
The ALCU letter gives the school district until March 15, 2013 to comply.
Filed under: Pennsylvania
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The ACLU at work again protecting freedoms and rights for those not in the majority. I really love (and financially support – that’s important!) this organization!
dumb dumb dumb dumb, why would a school want a positive organization in its school>
5-4 kills the alliance. It always comes down to one cock suck (ironically enough with the term cocksucker, ha!) that destroys shit.
while in Connecticut ACLU Nationwide is protecting a gay bashing brat’s first amendment right to be a gay bashing brat. Watch out for ACLU con they do this to beg for donations and then throw LGBTI children under the inequality bus
Tim, it has come to the point where people given political power should vote based on what benefits the American people and they only use it for what benefits them selves I.E. religious voting. I know this is going to piss off some people but if they take time to think about it, it is a fair statement. While yes Jessica they did do that, the point is that you and I may disagree with gay bashing but the constitution does not. People need to understand that the Constitution can work for you just as well as against you, that is what makes it perfect. Gay bashing is morally wrong but it is constitutionally right. What we should do is just let them gay bash them all they want, and just call them stupid for it and let them suffer for the actions whatever the outcome is.
Gay Bashing is “NOT” a First Amendment Right!! It’s a HATE CRIME!!
Seems that people elected into a position have their own power agenda, school boards, in Denver we have members of city council that are on their own power trip, in order to correct these issue power happy people need to be fired & replaced with someone that is working for the people. And the ACLU has done many wonders for the community.
The Constitution states that these rights allow anything and everything as long as it DOES NOT take away others Constitutional rights. People who beat up gays for being gay committed a crime, and deserved to be punished accordingly. People who think gays should die, complain about it, and want to take legal action is perfectly fine under the Constitution and it will be left up to the people to decided how to react. Second, there is no such thing as a hate crime for all crime has dark emotion in someway being used.
But separation of church and state is ignored more then Jesus’s message for love of others here I guess lol but wow…just wow…when’s this racism going to end? It’s like the 60′s here…
The ACLU defends everyone’s constitutional rights. I agree that gay bashing is and should be a crime, but if they see a first amendment issue they will pursue it.