Principal: No GSA Here
 ntiI We Get Legal Advice!

  

 

BY JEN CALKINS

The principal of Fair Haven
Union High School told
students, faculty, and staff
that he would not allow a
gay/straight alliance to be started
at the school until the school had
obtained legal advice. The state-
ment came in an all-school
assembly after a small group of
students attempted to form such
an organization.

B.J. Rogers, Director of
Outright Vermont, a statewide
organization that in part works to
make schools safer for students
who are or are perceived to be
GLBTQ, said he was invited to
Fair Haven Union High School in
mid-January to speak with stu-
dents who were interested in
starting the alliance. Five or six

Otter Valley Union High Faces

students and a staff advisor were
present at the meeting.

“The basic purpose was
to identify what they wanted to
do,” Rogers said.

The group decided to
display posters to get other stu-
dents interested in joining the
group. They went through the
school’s procedure of having the
posters approved by Principal
Bob Gray’s office. The poster
went through several edits before
it was accepted.

After the poster’s word-
ing was agreed on. the principal’s
office told the students that they
could display the posters only in
three specific locations around
the school. However, one student
decided to hand them out in the
hallway, which resulted in a neg-
ative reaction from another stu-
dent. A teacher stepped in to

avoid an altercation, and alerted
Gray.

Gray said in a phone
interview that the encounter was
more serious than described.
“Actually, the student tried to
force the flier onto another stu-
dent, who kept saying, ‘no, no, I
don’t want it.’”

According to Rogers,
Gray saw that the GSA was caus-
ing disruption at Fair Haven
Union, and he therefore saw it as
his responsibility to "end it.

“At that point, he pulled
everyone into an assembly and
told them that there would be no
gay-straight allianceiuntil he got
legal advice on what had to be

-done,” Rogers said.

Principal Gray said,
“What I told them in the assem-
bly was that the process was on
hold, because we wanted to do it

Fight Over Diversity Week.
School Board Caves To Pressure to Require
Anti»-Gay Speaker.

BY EUAN BEAR

ingly common scenario, a

diversity week planning com-
mittee made up of students has
been overruled by an outsider
community group of adults
objecting to the inclusion of a
presentation by Outright Vermont
Director BJ Rogers. The site this
time was Otter Valley Union
High School, in the Rutland
Northwest District, drawing stu-
dents from Brandon, Forestdale,
Pittsford, Whiting, Sudbury, and
Goshen.

Two weeks before the
scheduled event, school counselor
Jen Amsbury, who was advising
the student planning group, sent
the schedule to parents and
school board members, Rogers
recalled.

According to Otter

In what has become an increas-

Valley Union Principal Gary
Taber, “The concern [about the
Outright presentation] came from
a group of adults, few of whom
actually had any students here.
They expressed their terrible con-
cerns for the children. I tried to
get them to understand that the
message forthe week was to cre-
ate a safe and respectful environ-
ment for our students and staff
and faculty. When they said they
wanted to make sure the ‘other
side’ was presented, I asked them
to define the ‘other side.’ They
weren’t able to do so.”

Taber said that the
group, with leadership from the
“Center for American Cultural
Renewal,” pressured enough
members of the school board that
the adults issued an ultimatum to
the students that they must
include a speaker from the “ex-
gay” community. 

The “Center for

AmericanVCultural Renewal” sent
a packet of 11 pages to the princi-
pal and the school board, includ-
ing a 6-page letter signed by
group president Stephen Cable
and vice president Judith Sargent
and 13 others identified as Otter
Valley School District parents.
Cable and Sargent are also presi-
dent and vice president of the
Rutland-based civil unions back-
lash group “Who Would Have
Thought.” The letterhead for the
Center for American Cultural
Renewal lists an email address at
Who Would Have Thought, and
uses the same phone number as
Who Would Have Thought.

“The first five pages are
a letter from Sargent and Cable,
making false claims about
Outright and maligning us,” said
Rogers. “From there they go on
to publish materials from the Gay
Men’s Health Crisis that were
distributed by Health Department,

right. It was clear that there were
real differences of opinion, and I
didn’t want any anger or disrup-
tion in the student body.” Asked
about a rumor that half the stu-
dent body had stood up and
applauded, he denied it. “A few
students started applauding, but I
said right then that that was
exactly the kind of response I was
not expecting from the students at
our school. And they stopped.”

Gray was also asked
about a rumor that one of the stu-
dents was told that if coming to
school was uncomfortable or
fearful, the student should consid-
er being home schooled. “Who
said that?,” asked Gray indignant-
ly. “Told by whom? I can only
say that that suggestion did not
come from me or from my staff.”
Gray later clarified his statement,
explaining that he had spoken to
gay students about home school-
ing, but not as an alternative to
forming a gay-straight alliance. “I
never discussed homeschooling"
with gay students,” he said, “as a
way of avoiding forming a gay-
straight alliance.”

Afier four weeks, during
which Gray hired a lawyer, he
held four separate assemblies,
one for each grade. He reported
that, while the students seeking to
form a gay-straight alliance had
the legal right to meet in the
school building, it was an outside
group, not school sponsored. In

safe sex guidelines, the OITM
logo from the March issue, and a
page that spliced together a
Curbside cartoon, the photo of
Don Eg‘g‘ert and Mike Bensel
from the Drag Ball, and the
Yolanda photo [with inflatable
pha1lus].”

Taber said he worked
with a parent from the objecting
group to find a speaker who
would be acceptable to the adults
to present “the other side.”
Finally, Mark Williams, a man
Taber said “claims to be a former
homosexual who converted and
counsels people in that respect”
agreed to come and speak at the
high school. “That was not any-
thing to do with our topic,” Taber
argued. “We weren’t trying to
promote homosexuality or '
Hinduism or being black.
Converting people was notthe
topic,” Taber concluded. “Respect
for difference was and is.”

According to the princi-
pal, two or three students attend-
ed Williams’ presentation about
conversion and “reparative” ther-
apy. He and the students “tried to
convert his remarks to suggesting
that harassment was not okay.”

A few days later, Rogers
made his presentation on behalf
of Outright Vermont to about 10
students, an equal number of par-

order to beschoal sponsored, a
group must apply to the school
board for approval. Gray cited a
group that wanted to start a bowl-
ing team whose application for
school sponsorship was denied by
the school board.

At the assemblies, said
Gray, the lawyer talked about the
school’s obligation. “We have a
limited open forum policy. He
talked about civil rights, freedom.
I think he did a pretty nice job
presenting it. We let everyone
know that those students had a
legal right to meet.” He insisted,
“The school never took a stand
against the gay-straight alliance
at any time. We just didn’t want
to get into an emotional issue. At
no time were the students told
they couldn’t have such a group.
In fact, I told them they could,
but they’re not a school spon-
sored group.” As an example of
another outside group that’s not
school sponsored, Gray said, “we
have a prayer group that in past
years have met around a flag
pole.”

On April 9, the school
held a meeting to answer possible
questions that parents and com-
munity members might have
regarding the issue. According to
Rogers, the vast majority of peo-
ple in the room were faculty and
staff from Fair Haven Union

> continued on page 

ents and community members,
and 10 to 15 faculty and staff. “I
just made it clear that this was
about the students. There were
some questions directed in a way
to encourage confrontation, but
there was no picketing. Stephen
Cable came up to me afterward
with a big smile, shook my hand

-and told me how much he

enjoyed it,” Rogers recalled.

“In the end my major
problem was less about them pro-
viding the ‘other side’ than about
the fact this was a youth event,
planned, organized, sponsored,
put together, then at the last
minute, adults issue ultimatums

that disregard all of the students’ .

work,” Rogers explained. “The
week of programming was spon-
sored by the gay-straight alliance,
the honor society and the student
council. The action taken by the
adults was homophobic, that’s
become predictable. But it is
incredibly ageist for adults to step
in at the eleventh hour. Their
treatment of students and non-
thinking, nonempowered entities
is still surprising.”

Taber said in an inter-
view that he was impressed by
Rogers’s presentation, calling it
“One of the most eloquent talks

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