Newspapers / Q-notes. / April 26, 2003, edition 1 / Page 10
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School's Out Q-NOTES • APRIL 26 . 2003 April Sat 19 - f^dy"Bear Ceathir Club of VA ... Sat 26 - Highland LeatherClubof NC v^clubaliasx^/highlandllc plus Donnle s B-Day^Party April Extr^ Sun 20 - Brid's^going away party. May Sat3- CBL! _ www.carolinabearsrcom^ men s Sat 10 - Capital Leathermen Bar Night ‘ “ Will Clark Speaker/Columnist i Sat 17 Sat 24 Sat 31 |Plus special guest Speaker/Columnist and Adult Film Star. > Armed Forces Day - Miltary Party free enUy with uniform - Employee Turn-A~About ~ FLEX staff in drag I hope you have I a strong stomach , - Rogues of VA - Leather Night - May Extras Sun 4 - Crape Myrtle T-Dance - Cocktail Glam-O-Rama Spm^Opm - $10 ' Thur 29 - Miss White Trash 2003 Contest g Photo Will Clam Mon.. Tues. Wed.. Thurs Fri... Sat... Sun.. ...1 . ... DollarNightW^ ... Karaoke Night 9pm-Mid .. CountryJ^usic Night 8-Mid lessson 8:30 : .. Comedy Drag'Show Trailer Park Prize Night QueefAs FolkiJpm - Pool Tournament 11pm'^ . ... Special Events ... T-D'ancewith' DJJroubte & massages 7pm-9pm Get your copy of CAMP:The Movie^ @ TLAVideo.com ■ & White Rabbit Books night 2 S. WestltiRagighiN:^^ WWW. -832 8855 Schools must make space US District Court rules school ojfidab violated federal Equal Access Act By Mark Pitsch LOUISVILLE, KY — A federal judge ordered Boyd County High School yesterday to let a student gay-rights group meet and use school facilities. In a 47-page ruling, US District judge David L. Bunning found that the gay-straight alliance at the high school has "a strong likelihood” of winning its lawsuit that claimed school and district officials violated the federal Equal Access Act by hot allowing the group to meet. Despite a county school board decision in December to bar nonacademic clubs from the high school, several student groups met any way this spring and used school facilities, while the alliance was prevented from doing so, Bunning concluded. That violated the federal law, which says that if a school allows one noncurricular group to meet it cannot bar others based on religion, political orientation or philosophy, Bunning said. He issued an injunction requir ing the school to give the alliance access. “1 think what’s really important here is that the judge recognized that when anybody, including students, talks about controversial issues, you can’t silence them," said james Esseks, litigation director for the American Civil Liberties Union’s Lesbian and Gay Rights Project, which sued on behalf of the gay- rights group. Winter Huff, a lawyer for the school dis trict and the school, said she and other lawyers will meet with the school board Monday night to discuss their next step. Huff said the district could concede that the stu dents have a right to meet, ask Bunning to ' reconsider or convert his decision to a final ruling that can be appealed. “The school district as a whole will have to take a look at not only what it needs to do and wants to do right now but in the long term,” Huff said. Bunning asked the defendants — the school board and its five members, superin tendent Bill Capehart and school principal jerry johnson — to respond to the alliance’s initial complaint within 20 days. Sarah Alcorn, a Boyd County High junior and one of the seven gay-straight alliance members who sued, said, “We’re all very excited,” Alcorn said. We were optimistic from the beginning that [Bunning] would make the right decision. But this is a big deal to us.” The alliance turned to the ACLU after the school’s teacher-parent council three times denied its application to meet at the school. The council reversed itself in October after the ACLU sent a letter to the council saying that the Equal Access Act required the school to let the group meet if it allowed other noncurricu lar groups to meet at school. The council’s 3-2 decision prompted a stu dent boycott and protests organized by local ministers. In December, the school board voted to bar all noncurricular clubs from meet ing at the high school, saying its action was not aimed at the gaystraight alliance and that it wanted to postpone all club activity pending the development of a new club policy. The ACLU filed suit in january, arguing the ban tar geted the alliance in violation of the Equal Access Act, and that despite the ban several noncurricular student groups continued to meet at school while the alliance was barred from doing so. The suit also said that the school failed to protect the gay-rights group’s ■members from harassment and violated their First Amendment rights. And it said the school board violated the Kentucky Education Reform Act when it voted to ban clubs because that is a decision for school councils to make. Bunning did not address the state reform act or First Amendment issues. But he said the students would be irreparably injured without the injunction by being further denied the opportunity to meet and discuss matters relating to sexual orientation. But he said the alliance should be able to meet at the school and that the school did not do enough to stop its members and students who are gay or perceived as gay from being harassed. “Anti-gay harassment, homophobia, and use of anti-gay epithets have been and con tinue to be serious problems" at Boyd County High, Bunning wrote. Esseks said the school is “now on notice that they have a problem and they’ll have to deal with it." Capehart, the superintendent, did not return calls. The district argued the alliance was a dis ruptive presence at the school and the school district had a right to keep it from meeting there. But Bunning said the “disruption to which defendants were responding when they acted to ban all clubs” was caused by opponents of the alliance rather than its- supporters. He noted even school administrators acknowl edged any controversy surrounding the group was not caused by group members. info: Goy-Straight Alliance Network: www.gsanetwork.org American Civil Liberties Unon: www.aclu.org ■ COMMON E A L T H ,7 f r ANIMAL ' !'(,tlHOSPITAl 909 Commonwealth'^. • Charlotte. NC 28205 • (704) 370-0767 Traditional and Alternative Animal Medicine Clayton C. Watkins, DVM James E. Schacht, DVM We offer: yearly physicals/vaccines surgery dental cleaning & surgery x-rays : microchip ID boarding bathing acupuncture chiropractic homeopathy We also offer: vaccine titers in lieu of vaccination j
April 26, 2003, edition 1
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