Some parents and kids in rural King George County are celebrating after the local school board backtracked on an effort to block a club for LGBTQ students.
Back in the fall, A.P., a then-eighth grader who we’re identifying only by their initials because of their age, walked up to the King George County School Board meeting podium and spoke.
“Equality, it hurts no one, safety hurts no one. Self-expression hurts no one," A.P. said. "Removing a club created for equality, safety and self-expression hurts many.”
He was speaking out against the school board’s policy change which blocked the creation of a Gay Straight Alliance, or GSA, club in the rural school district in eastern Virginia. Now, nearly a year later, A.P. and his mom Susan Park are celebrating after the policy change was nixed.
“I’m just grateful that my son had this opportunity to see that he could affect change,” Park said in an interview with Radio IQ Monday.
But that change didn’t come easily. After the school board altered their policy to allow only quote "curricular clubs,” like chorus, outdoor club, yearbook club, Park contacted the ACLU of Virginia. They filed a lawsuit in August claiming the “curricular-only” club rule was discriminatory.
“Regardless of what the clubs were engaged in, what the students were doing in those clubs, they were all allowed to continue except the GSA,” said ACLU of VA staff attorney Julia Kahn. “Schools cannot discriminate against students based on their viewpoint; they cannot single out clubs like GSAs.”
After a settlement was reached earlier this month, the school board voted to allow the Gay-Straight Alliance to meet. In a statement the board said quote “these changes further demonstrate the school board’s commitment to emphasizing family involvement, prioritizing transparency, and fostering direct communication between school and home.”
And for Susan Park?
“I think this hopefully will show other school boards and administrations its much simpler and cheaper to follow the law to start with,” she said.
