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"The Actual or Perceived GLBT Student Protection Project"
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BATON ROUGE ADVOCATE, February 15, 2000
525 Lafayette St., Baton Rouge, LA, 70821
(Fax 504-388-0371 ) (E-MAIL:bbankston@theadvocate.com )
( http://www.theadvocate.com )

Principal to allow club, if rules met

By KRISTEN KING, Advocate staff writer

The principal of McKinley High School told students Monday that a chapter of the Gay Straight Alliance can open at the school if it follows the law and new school system rules.

The new rules require clubs to submit bylaws, have members' parents sign release forms, be open to all students and find a school employee who will act as a monitor.

All of that is in order, said McKinley senior Martin Pfeiffer, who is behind the effort to start a chapter of the Gay Straight Alliance at McKinley. He said he will file a formal request today.

His initial request to start such a club in the fall was denied, leading to weeks of heated debate at the School Board level.

"I'm ecstatic that they're going to go ahead and comply with the law," Pfeiffer said Monday. "I'm extremely hopeful for the possibility the club will make the school ... a much more accepting place for all students."

Pfeiffer said he expects to have the first meeting of the club in the next week or two. He said its focus will be on tolerance, education and respect.

He said he also plans to help other students who want to start chapters of the Gay Straight Alliance at Scotlandville and Baton Rouge Magnet high schools.

School Board member Jay Devall, who tried to get rid of all extracurricular clubs as a way to keep the Gay Straight Alliance off campuses, said Monday that if the club is approved, he will "do everything I can so this doesn't happen in East Baton Rouge Parish."

"I can't let it rest if they approve that," he said.

McKinley High Principal Almenia Freeman Warren said her decision was difficult and that the students and faculty are split on it.

"It's like we're the pilot school, but we need to abide by the law. It's their right. I wish everybody could see it is their right (even though) it might conflict with how people feel religiously or morally," she said.

Warren's denial of Pfeiffer's initial proposal to start the club last fall led the system to write the new rules for clubs. It also sparked a debate over whether a chapter of the Gay Straight Alliance should be allowed at any school.

A School Board vote last week on a proposal to guarantee all clubs equal access to high school campuses failed.

That left the board's old policy in place. It encourages student participation in clubs and lets principals decide which clubs can meet on their campuses.

The superintendent and his staff continued to develop rules to carry out that policy and follow the law. On Monday, principals received those rules.

Warren said she approved the club this time because of the new rules and a better knowledge of the federal Equal Access Act.

The rules direct principals to comply with the act, which generally requires all extracurricular clubs to be treated equally.

Also, Warren said, "the student body at McKinley is a very diverse student body to begin with. It comes from one end of the spectrum to another. ...They all manage and have been managing on the campus like this for a very long time."

Board member Eldon Ledoux said he expected Warren to grant the club's request under that federal law and the new rules.

"I wish we had the ability to restrict anything that had to do with sexual content on our campuses because I personally don't think it belongs at school, but the courts have already made that determination for us -- unfortunately," he said.

Ledoux voted for the new policy but said that vote shouldn't be "perceived as an endorsement of anything other than a need to comply with the law."

Warren said that once Pfeiffer formally files his new request, she and others "will read over the guidelines carefully."

She said systemwide administrators, lawyers and the McKinley High School improvement team all will probably look over the request.

Pfeiffer said that's fine if other club requests undergo the same scrutiny.

Warren said that if the club is approved and "if at any point it moves outside the guidelines of East Baton Rouge Parish or my guidelines or those of the federal government, then we were told we have the right ... to call a halt to it."

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