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(Atlanta, Georgia) A federal lawsuit was filed on Monday accusing a Cleveland, Georgia high school of illegally banning a gay-straight alliance club.
Last year White County High School administrators agreed to let the club form after several months of students said was stalling and after the ACLU of Georgia negotiated on the students' behalf.
The students, who wanted to start the club to address what they said was rampant anti-gay harassment at the school, named the gay-straight alliance PRIDE - "Peers Rising in Diverse Education".
A few days after agreeing to allow the group to form school officials announced plans to ban all non-curricular student groups in the 2005-2006 academic year.
PRIDE hasn't been permitted to meet on campus this school year, but several other clubs according to the ACLU - including the "Shooting Club" and a school dance team - continue meeting at WCHS even though they don't participate in activities relevant to the curriculum, academic credit is not provided for participation in them, and participation in them isn't required for any course.
"I've been assaulted at school twice and called names more times than I can remember, and I know gay students who have had to drop out of our school because the harassment was so bad," Charlene Hammersen, a 17-year-old lesbian who is one of the founding members of the gay-straight alliance told an Atlanta news conference on Monday.
The lawsuit was filed today by the ACLU on behalf of Hammersen and other LGBT students
"We need a gay-straight alliance because it would make our school safer for everyone," said Hammersen. "Being a safe place for its students is something that White County High School should want, too."
The lawsuit alleges that White County School District is violating the students' rights under the federal Equal Access Act and the U.S. Constitution.
The ACLU also asked the court to issue a preliminary injunction requiring the school to let all non-curricular student groups start meeting again immediately.
"It's frightening to me that my daughters have to go every day to a school that is so indifferent to their rights and their safety," said Savannah Pacer, whose daughter Kerry is the president of PRIDE and whose other daughter Lindsay is also a member of the club.
"No parent should have to wonder whether their school would even bother to do anything if other students harass or assault their children," she said.
ACLU attorney Beth Littrel said that the federal Equal Access Act requires schools to treat gay-straight alliances as they would any other school group.
Federal courts, she noted, have repeatedly ruled in favor of GSA's where schools tried to block their formation, upholding students' right to form the groups in Salt Lake City, Utah; Orange County, California; Franklin Township, Indiana; and Boyd County, Kentucky.
"White County High School has been picking and choosing which clubs it likes and which ones it doesn't in clear violation of federal law," said Littrell.
©365Gay.com 2006
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