Jan 12, 2007  |  By: ELIZABETH A. PERRY  | COMMENTS     

White County High School students fighting to start a gay-straight alliance reached a settlement agreement with White County, Ga., school officials Wednesday, the latest chapter in what has been an ongoing national battle over the legal right for such clubs to exist in public schools.

The American Civil Liberties Union represented the students in a yearlong court battle for the club’s right to exist and for the students’ right to go to school free of harassment. Terms of the settlement include policies for students in grades nine through 12 that specifically state anti-gay harassment is prohibited on school grounds and annual training sessions for faculty on dealing with and preventing anti-gay harassment.

Student Charlene Hammersen, one of the founders of the school’s GSA club, Peers Rising In Diverse Education (PRIDE), said she is just glad it’s all over and that her school is doing the right thing.

“It’s taken almost two years to get here, but we’re as determined as we’ve always been to promote diversity and fight harassment against gay students at our school,” said Hammersen, now a senior. “This is really great for every student who goes to White County High.”

The battle over such clubs is nothing new. In 1999 in Orange County, Calif., a school board there voted unanimously to prohibit the formation of a gay-straight alliance at El Modena High School. Students there sued the school board claiming their First Amendment rights had been violated.

Also cited was the 1984 Equal Access Act, which, ironically, was established in part to protect the rights of religious clubs in public schools. The Orange County case reached a settlement that required the board to recognize the GSA, but the battle has continued to play out in other schools since then.

A similar case is playing out now at Okeechobee High School in Okeechobee, Fla., where a gay student there, Yasmin Gonzalez, has been barred from having a GSA at her school and she claims she has been taunted by teachers and fellow students because of the matter. The ACLU is also involved in that case.

Promoting promiscuity?

Some conservatives have argued the clubs promote promiscuity or exist to recruit students into the “gay lifestyle.” The Gay-Straight Alliance Network, a youth-led organization that connects school-based GSAs to each other and community resources, denies those claims.

School officials in Okeechobee are using the argument that their district promotes abstinence as a grounds for not allowing the alliance in question there.

In the Georgia case, James Esseks, the ACLU’s LGBT Project litigation director, called the settlement a tremendous victory for everyone involved.

“We’re pleased that we helped to ensure that all students can participate in extracurricular clubs, including the PRIDE club,” he said. “And that the school has agreed to changes that we believe will make its hallways safer for all of its students.”

The trouble began two years ago, when then-junior Kerry Pacer asked for permission to start a GSA in January 2005. Three months later, after the ACLU became involved and demanded recognition of the club, PRIDE was able to meet on school grounds during non-class hours. The first meeting was in March 2005 and drew seven people, most of them straight allies. Hammersen, currently the only openly gay member of the group, said she never thought the club would come under so much scrutiny.

“I thought we would get together and do stuff like the FCA [Fellowship of Christian Athletes] or any other club,” she said. “Things like meetings and social activities.”

Four days after PRIDE was given permission to meet, the school board announced the elimination of all non-curricular student groups at the school beginning in the 2005-06 school year. Some groups including the shooting and Beta clubs, student council, youth advisory council, dance team and Future Family, Careers and Community Leaders of America defied the ruling and continued to meet on school property. Hammersen said PRIDE met at a local church for a year before the school club ban was lifted.

She said she and the other members of the group decided to go to court when they were allegedly harassed and bullied by other students and even some faculty members. An athletic coach monitoring in-school suspension asked Hammersen if she was a lesbian, she said. When she refused to answer, he asked her to out a friend of hers. She said her car’s windshield was broken and the tires flattened. Another student had a bottle and a brick thrown at him, she said.

“It made me feel like shit, like I wasn’t worth anything because people like ...