A local high school in Eastlake, Ohio has come under fire as a home video posted on You Tube shows students chanting gay slurs at an opposing football team last Thursday night.
The South High School and North High School football game is a huge rivalry, and during the pre-game, North High students called their cross-town rivals “Powder Blue Faggots.”
The following video was taken by former North High student Heather Ike:
“I sat there for a little bit thinking it would stop, and it happened again, and it happened three times,” Ike said, adding that she left the game disgusted.
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Jan Cline, executive director of the LGBT Center of Greater, said he was not surprised when he had heard of what happened at the game. [Cleveland Plain Dealer]
“It goes on all the time,” he said. “As I teenager I heard it at school. The school has to be responsible for what happened on their grounds. I understand this has been part of a long tradition and that the kids don’t even understand what they did wrong.”
“It’s bullying. That’s why in the past few weeks young men have been killing themselves,” Cline said. “The unintended impact of this is that it drives young men and women to kill themselves. It sets them apart. What happened at the game tells people that its OK to say anti-gay slurs because these people are not worth much.”
North High School principal Jennifer Chauby said she and the assistant principals did stop the chanting, although that wasn’t captured on video.
“We did put a stop to it as soon as we heard them chanting it, and it’s totally unacceptable and they know we don’t condone that type of behavior,” Chauby said.
Students said the chants have been going on for years, and that South High School uses it’s own anti-gay slurs — “Halloween Homos” — against North.
