GSAs and Administrations

Hello, DOSsers! (Double points for anyone who gets this Off-Broadway reference!) I’m your newest blogger for Day of Silence. My name is Rachel Gadd-Nelson and I’m from Kansas City, KS. I go to school at the University of Kansas and I’m on the board of GLSEN of Greater Kansas City and EQUAL. EQUAL (Empowering Queer Activists and Leaders) is the Kansas City GSA Network that is entirely run by students.

Okay, enough of the shameless plugging!

Since I work with a lot of area high schools, I’ve seen what the students and teachers have to go through. Sometimes there are great stories. At the high school in Lawrence, KS the GSA was having a tough time with a religious group, but their principal stood by them and supported them! But then in Shawnee Mission, the students are allowed by participate in Day of Silence, but the GSAs are not allowed to sponsor it, or advertise it.

So a question that has come up a lot recently, is why? Why are we not allowed to participate in a vow of silence, when religious groups have the freedom to practice their religion in a school setting?

One could very easily argue separation of church and state, but that’s a whole different story, for a whole different blog. Right now, though, I’m wondering why the religious groups get more privileges than the human rights groups. (And if you think about it, “religious group” could be replaced with any other group, since GSAs usually have to follow a different set of rules than other organizations)

Let’s look at it this way. Administrators give religious groups permission to practice their religion in a school setting. They are allowed to, for example, miss class when there is a religious holidays.

The administrators do this because they know that if they don’t, they will have hell to pay. Understandable, right? There should be freedom of religion in schools!

Okay, then. So why don’t those rules apply to GSAs that want to participate in Day of Silence?

I believe there are a lot of factors that take place here. The main excuse from administrators seems to be “they don’t want to cause a disruption.” This can easily translate to parents and students getting upset about “promoting the gay agenda!” The administrators also might want to avoid Day of Truth people protesting the day after DoS. While this may be a factor, I feel that it might be giving homophobic administrations way too much credit.

The examples that are given above really just boil down to what I like to call a “cop-out.” And, as stated before, the reason the administrations don’t “cop-out” with religious organizations is because they know all the problems that will come out of that. So they don’t cop-out on religious groups, because they know they can’t get away with it.

And they do cop-out on GSAs because they know they can get away with it.

This has to change. We need to fight back and make the school administrations realize that we can’t be bullied!

Now, before everyone at GLSEN National has a heart attack, let me explain myself. I just mean, don’t take “we don’t want a disruption” for an answer!

Make it so that there would be more problems for the administration to say “no” than “yes.”

And how do you do that?

Talk to all the administrators, talk to your ally teachers, go as far up as school district officers! Get support from your local GLSEN chapters, PFLAG, other local organizations, and if things get legal, ACLU.

Now, of course, you have to be sensible. Teachers can get fired, and students can be suspended or expelled. Tread carefully!

The important thing is the fact that schools still believe they can walk all over GSAs, and they need to realize that we won’t tolerate that anymore!

Now, I’m getting off my soap box and would love to hear what you have to say about this. What experiences have you had with your GSA and administration? Please leave a comment and share your story!