It would be nice to see the Lake County School Board trying to clean up public education, and I would love to commend them on their hard work—if they were not stuck in the ’40s and attempting to ruin the advancement of their own students. Their refusal to allow a Gay Straight Alliance student group to be formed on one of their campuses and their willingness to throw other social groups under the bus just to ensure the GSA will not be created follows Florida in true form, really proving that for every step forward, we take delight in taking twenty steps back.
Kyleen Fischer’s belief that “school is not responsible for social engineering” is blatantly false and dangerously ignorant coming from a school board official. A student will not succeed in life with purely academic expertise; they will fall short in almost every field without an express understanding of diversity and an ability to relate to his, her or their peers. Shielding students from their differences is directly oppositional to the mission of public education, which is to guide students academically and socially so that they may venture out and make their own mark on the world.
To threaten the disbanding of other social clubs in order to punish middle school students for attempting to create a more inclusive campus environment is a transparent move, and Lake County School Board is fooling no one. This is not question of curricular or non-curricular, it is a question of “should we let the gays be visible on our pristine Christian campuses?”
The answer, of course, is yes, we should absolutely provide a safe space for LGBT students to talk and make themselves heard against the loud sea of ignorant people that always seem to be insulting and trying to break things they do not understand. Thankfully, brave students like the ones at Carver Middle School will always be there to fight for visibility of LGBT students on campus and elsewhere, and I, personally, will be fighting with them.
Written by College Democrat Chelsea Aldrich
