Ministers protest plan at McKinley to start Gay Straight Alliance club

By MICHELLE MILLHOLLON, Advocate staff writer

The entire community will be affected if a Gay Straight Alliance chapter is allowed to form at McKinley High School, a group of religious leaders said Monday.

"We love the sinner, but we just hate the sin," said the Rev. Clyde Lewis with Concord Baptist Church. "... Homosexuality is just not right."

Lewis and other pastors met privately Monday with McKinley Principal Almenia Freeman Warren.

Warren has said that a chapter of the Gay Straight Alliance can open at the school if it follows the law and new school system rules for extracurricular clubs.

The chapter's application is pending.

The pastors came out of their meeting with Warren on Monday saying their next step will be to meet with Superintendent Gary Mathews.

"(We) got a clear understanding of what (we) need to do," said the Rev. Gerard Robinson of McKowen Baptist Church.

Robinson said he is concerned about the school's image. "McKinley affects this community," he said.

Warren did not speak to reporters on Monday.

McKinley senior Martin Pfeiffer is behind the effort to start a chapter of the Gay Straight Alliance at McKinley.

The School Board came within one vote earlier this month of approving a policy that would have assured all clubs, including the Gay Straight Alliance, equal opportunity to meet on high school campuses.

The board's vote left the decisions about clubs up to individual principals, who were directed to follow recently drafted rules and the law.

Warren told her students she would let the club form if it follows school rules and the federal Equal Access Act, which requires high schools to treat all extracurricular clubs equally.

McKinley students opposed to the formation of the club cut class and protested on Friday with signs and chants.

One student said she was threatened, but no one was injured in the demonstration.

Baton Rouge Advocate, February 19, 2000
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Gay Straight supporters shaken by group of protesting students

By TOM GUARISCO and KRISTEN KING, Advocate staff writers

Students trying to start a Gay Straight Alliance at McKinley High School said they feared for their safety Friday morning when a protest by angry students erupted at school.

Students gathered in front of the main school building to protest the formation of the club by waving signs and chanting against it. More students later joined in and ran through the hallways banging on lockers and doors.

Seniors Martin Pfeiffer and Leslie Spillman said they were not injured but left school shaken. They promoted the club at recent East Baton Rouge Parish School Board meetings during debated on the board's policy regarding school clubs.

On Friday, Pfeiffer blamed the board for helping to foster the environment that led to the protest Friday.

Last week, the board came within one vote of approving a policy that would have assured all clubs, including the Gay Straight Alliance, equal opportunity to meet on high school campuses. One board member, Jay Devall, argued for getting rid of all extracurricular clubs to prevent the Gay Straight Alliance from meeting on campuses.

"I think the School Board sent a powerful message when some members quoted the Gay Straight Alliance as a reason not to vote yes" on a policy to give all clubs equal access to school facilities, Pfeiffer said. "They sent a powerful message."

The board's vote left the decisions about clubs up to individual principals, who were directed to follow recently drafted rules and the law.

On Monday, McKinley Principal Almenia Freeman Warren told her students that in light of the federal Equal Access Act requiring high schools to treat all extracurricular clubs equally she would let the club form if it follows school rules.

The club is reapplying and Warren is expected to announce her decision soon on whether it can use school facilities.

Warren said she first heard about the protest earlier in the week. A group of students told her they wanted to protest the possible formation of the club. She told them specifically that they could not interfere with school and that their first step should be a petition.

She did not receive a petition, she said, but on Thursday she heard rumors about a protest Friday. Administrators warned teachers to be prepared.

On Friday morning, as the first bell rang at 7:15 a.m., about 70 students started holding up signs against the club "because the media was across the street," Warren said.

She said she used a megaphone and the public address system to tell the students to go back to class and that they all returned to class by 7:45 a.m.

Later in the morning, another group of students left class and held up signs again. That group was joined by a larger group of students when the classes changed, and some students started running through the halls, some banging on doors.

Warren said all students ate lunch together Friday because of a special schedule that allowed for a faculty-student basketball game in the afternoon, and the students at lunch were "obedient and peaceful."

As lunch ended, a television crew drove up and some students started protesting again, she said.

"They were kids and they sought media attention," she said. "But we all worked the crowd and they got to class on time."

Mark Nassif, who coordinates the gifted program at McKinley, said the protest Friday "was unpleasant, not unsafe."

"The protest was done in a way that anyone who values freedom would understand. They have a right to protest," he said. "They should not have disrupted school but they did not create an environment that compromised safety. No one was ever unsafe."

He said the media has sometimes portrayed McKinley as unsafe, but that's not true.

"One of the things I have always been able to tell parents and will continue to tell them is this is a safe environment," he said.

David Corona, high schools executive director, said the protest did not cause a major disruption and does not warrant any investigation.

"The administration at the school handled it well, and the young people cooperated very well," Corona said. "There was not much of a display, and there was no interruption to the school day, which went on as planned."

Some students told a different story.

Pfeiffer and Spillman said they were concerned for their safety because of the anger of some of the protesters.

"Students were coming down the hall and banging on the lockers and going into classrooms," Pfeiffer said. "There was a threat to our physical safety."

Spillman, who was not with Pfeiffer when the protest spilled into the school, said a group of angry students confronted her, and one threatened to beat her up.

"She was riled up and got right in my face," cursing and threatening her, Spillman said. "I just stood there, dumfounded."

Eventually another student stepped in to end that confrontation, Spillman said.

Warren said Pfeiffer and Spillman had not told her they were afraid. In fact, she said, she specifically asked one of them if they were all right, and they said yes.

"I saw them when they left the campus and they didn't say anything about that," she said.

Jessica Edmonds, a 10th grader, protested by holding a sign that said "No Gay Club." She said she understands Pfeiffer's and Spillman's fears, but said their own actions led to the events on Friday.

"I don't blame them for being scared, but they know most of the children in the school are straight," Edmonds said. "What did they think was going to happen?"

"I don't have anything against gay people, but I don't like the club at my school and making our school look bad," she said.

Senior Isaac Sparrow said he participated in the protest because he does not want the Gay Straight Alliance in his school.

"Because I don't think the school is the place for that. You should discuss that in your house, not in school," Sparrow said.

Warren said only 17 students checked out of the school Friday, which is fewer than most days. That shows there was no widespread fear on campus, she said.

"That says a lot," she said.

She said there is no reason for any students not to return to class as normal next week.

Warren said the school administration will discuss how to deal with the student protesters. Most will probably be punished for cutting class and some could be punished for causing a disturbance, she said.

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