Dec 17, 2004  |  By: VAN GOWE  | COMMENTS     

Sixteen year old Brad Mathewson knows firsthand the bias gay high school students can face from peers and administrators.

A junior at Webb City High School in Webb City, Mo., Mathewson is embroiled in a lawsuit over his decision to wear a gay-straight alliance T-shirt to class on Oct. 20.

Assistant Principal Jeff Thornsberry ordered Mathewson to go home and change or turn the shirt inside out. Instead, Mathewson traded shirts with a straight friend, who was not confronted by administrators for wearing the same shirt.

One week later, Mathewson was reprimanded again for wearing a Gay Pride shirt. The following day, Mathewson and his mother met with school administrators, who forbade him to wear similar slogans in the future.

The Mathewsons then approached the American Civil Liberties Union for help.

“Even though nobody complained about my T-shirts, my school told me I couldn’t wear them just because someone might get offended,” Mathewson said in an ACLU press release. “But every day, I see students at my school with anti-gay stickers on their notebooks and sometimes on their shirts, and I find that offensive.”

The ACLU’s Kansas & Western Missouri chapter issued a letter to the school on Mathewson’s behalf. When school officials did not respond, the ACLU filed suit in federal court citing First Amendment violations.

The controversy grew Nov. 30, when 10 Webb City High School students wearing shirts with slogans supporting Mathewson were reprimanded.

Mathewson has since withdrawn from school, according to Dick Kurtenbach, executive director of the ACLU of Kansas City & Western Missouri.

But the case remains important to raise awareness of the difficulties gay students face, according to ACLU officials.

“Whether we’re able to go forward [with the suit] or not, we hope we’ve at least raised awareness about students’ free speech rights,” said Chris Hampton, public education associate of the ACLU Lesbian & Gay Rights Project.

Webb City School District Superintendent Ronald Lankford did not respond to interview requests by press time.

THE SITUATION FACED by Mathewson is far from unique, according to advocates for gay students.

High school students in West Jordan, Utah, learned a similar lesson firsthand last month, when Copper Hills High School Principal Tom Worlton said gay couples would need parental permission to attend school dances.

Worlton issued the policy out of concerns for gay students safety at the dance, said Mike Kelly, a school spokesperson.

“Anytime the administration feels the students are in danger, they want the parents to be notified,” Kelly said.

A half-dozen sign-carrying protesters — led by Copper Hills student Jason Atwood, 17, and his boyfriend Tom Tolman, 15, a student from nearby West Valley City — endured verbal harassment, obscene gestures and projectiles thrown from passing cars.

Protests ended Dec. 3 when Atwood and two friends met with Worlton and other administrators to discuss the policy. At press time, the permission requirement was under review, and Worlton was expected to make a decision in time for the spring prom.