Conatct info for McKinley High School
Administration
Principal:Ms. Almenia Williams
Mr. William Hanley
Mr. Armond Brown
Contacts
Office:504.344.7696
Fax:504.387.5435
Schools: Principals get latitude over clubs
By KRISTEN KING, Advocate staff writer
High school principals in East Baton Rouge Parish on Monday will have in their hands a set of rules reinforcing their authority to decide which clubs meet on their schools' campuses, board attorney Max Kees said.
The regulations will keep open the possibility of the Gay Straight Alliance meeting on school campuses.
But the rules also give principals the latitude to turn down the clubs, board Vice President Jackie Mims said.
Kees declined to comment on specific clubs. But he said if any club is denied, the regulations will give it the ability to appeal, ultimately to the School Board.
The board Thursday voted down a new policy that would have guaranteed all clubs equal access to meet on high school campuses.
Board members who voted against it were the same ones who spoke out against the possibility of letting a chapter of the Gay Straight Alliance meet at school.
On Friday, Kees pointed out that the board only creates policy. By rejecting the new policy Thursday, the existing policy stays in place.
That policy simply encourages student participation in clubs and says "such organizations must be sponsored or approved by appropriate personnel at each individual school."
It's up to the superintendent and his staff to create rules that carry out School Board policies, Kees said.
The club issue arose when McKinley High senior Martin Pfeiffer's proposal to start a Gay Straight Alliance was denied in the fall. He then asked for a set of rules, but the system didn't have any.
Pfeiffer could not be reached for comment Friday. He said after the board vote Thursday that he felt his rights had been "trampled on."
He said he planned to contact a lawyer, but would also wait and see if the board dealt with the issue again.
Kees said the rules are being tweaked some this weekend, but "will be legal according to federal and state law."
The federal Equal Access Act requires all high schools that get federal funding to treat all clubs equally.
Board member Jay Devall was outspoken against the Gay Straight Alliance at the board meeting Thursday. He said the Bible prohibits homosexuality.
On Friday, he said he had not seen the revised regulations and hadn't yet formed an opinion about them.
"It's too early for me to say, but I want to do whatever it takes to keep the Gay Alliance club from meeting on our school premises," he said.
But he said he imagines that if, under the new rules, one school turned down a chapter of the Gay Straight Alliance and another didn't, the rejected club would sue the board for discrimination.
Devall said that's why he tried to get his fellow School Board members to eliminate all extracurricular clubs, including service clubs, religious clubs and the Gay Straight Alliance.
"I proposed what I knew the law would support," he said.
Devall's proposal failed at the School Board meeting.
The rules principals will get Monday do contain a few changes, including one based on a suggestion local attorney Mike Johnson made Thursday at the board meeting, Kees said.
Johnson suggested a clause saying principals can deny clubs that "encourage imminent lawless action" - a phrase taken from a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on a different issue.
Kees would not say how that would be an excuse for principals to deny a Gay Straight Alliance or any other specific club.
But he did say that, for example, principals could block clubs calling for an immediate riot in the school or telling people to do drugs.
"To incite people to commit a lawless act is something we want none of our clubs to do," he said.
Mims said she believes a principal could turn down a chapter of the Gay Straight Alliance by saying it would incite a crime against nature.
State law defines such crimes as, among other things, "the unnatural carnal copulation by a human being with another of the same sex or opposite sex or with an animal."
The 4th Circuit Court of Appeal has struck down the law as it pertains to consenting adults who aren't engaged in prostitution.
It is unclear how that ruling would apply to high school age students.
Mims said even given the new "lawless action" clause in the club rules, the Gay Straight Alliance could still form "as long as they could prove and we were assured it would not promote lawless acts."
Students who want to form the club say they would promote tolerance.
"I hear what they say they're going to do," Mims said, "but I find it hard to believe you are going to be able not to talk about the very thing that brings you together."
Mims also said that while the Gay Straight Alliance has been at the heart of the discussion about clubs, she also is concerned about opening up campuses to hate groups.
"All people see right now is the Gay Straight Alliance, which is
uncomfortable for a lot of people, including myself," she said.
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jessea@uclink4.berkeley.edu (Jessea NR Greenman)
"Don't think of me as just some kid," she wrote, "think of me as the voice of the future." nine-year old child
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Last updated 2/22/2000 by Jean Richter, richter@eecs.Berkeley.EDU