Ban suffocates student rights

editorial cartoon by Kevin Johnstone
editorial cartoon by Kevin Johnstone

Education, learning and growth do not occur solely in the classroom. There are many experiences and opportunities that are available only through non-curricular activities that have the ability to open doors and minds. In what classroom is it possible for students to play chess, go skiing or discuss what it is to be African American, Christian or gay? Students have access to these things through various on-campus clubs that meet specific needs and interests. These are the organizations and activities that have the potential to help students to discover their strengths, their passions and their goals.

It is these high school clubs that have fallen victim to the Salt Lake City Board of Education in Utah. In order to crush the newly formed Gay/Straight Alliance at East High School, the board voted 4-3 last Tuesday in favor of a blanket ban that will forbid all non-curricular organizations in the district from meeting on campus. The measure will take effect in the fall.

Sherry Clark, media coordinator for the Salt Lake City Board of Education, said, “There are a lot of very unhappy students. About 600 of them walked out of school last Friday.”

Students at both East and West high schools marched from their schools to the capitol and to the District Administration Building in protest of the decision chanting, “Hey, Hey, Ho, Ho, hate and fear have got to go!”
Members and supporters of the club sought protection for their right to form the club under the Federal Equal Access Act.

The Act, sponsored by Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) in 1985, protects the right of high school social clubs to meet. It was designed to ensure that local school boards could not ban Christian Bible clubs from using public school facilities for extracurricular activities.

Apparently, Sen. Hatch did not intend the law to protect the rights of clubs that Christians disagree with.

As reported in the Los Angeles Times, Hatch said, “Local school boards have a moral obligation and the legal authority to keep gay clubs out of public schools. The fact that the gay and lesbian club tried to use the act as a shield was an unintended consequence.”

The actions taken by the Salt Lake City Board of Education, as well as Sen. Hatch’s remarks, are discriminatory, insensitive and ignorant. To forbid a group of students from meeting in a group that is meaningful and beneficial, based on personal opinions and values, is wrong.

Access to these types of groups is necessary and crucial. These groups aid in the realization that the differences among people are to be celebrated, as are the similarities. Through them comes the understanding that there is a common meeting ground, a place where people find a little bit of each other in themselves. Reading, writing and arithmetic are not capable of bringing people together in understanding and acceptance in the same way, nor are they intended to.

The gradual loss of freedom of expression is a travesty that seems to be occurring more often in this country as we gravitate toward a hampered revision of freedom.

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