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Okeechobee County school officials have asked a judge to dismiss a lawsuit filed by an Okeechobee High School senior and the club she created to promote tolerance of homosexuals, whose members say they wrongfully were denied the right to meet on school grounds.
Attorneys for the Okeechobee County School Board and Toni Wiersma, principal of the high school, say that the Gay-Straight Alliance of Okeechobee High School isn't entitled to a claim under the federal Equal Access Act. Furthermore, the alliance and Yasmin Gonzalez, a founder of the club and the co-plaintiff in the case, have no grounds to sue Wiersma under the federal act, since she is not a public secondary school, according to a motion filed Monday in U.S. District Court. The defense attorneys also claim that Wiersma was mandated by state law to prohibit the club from meeting at the school and that the plaintiffs have failed to show that the school board had an official policy that deprived them of their civil rights. "I think this is a garbage lawsuit," said David Gibbs, a Seminole-based attorney working for the school board and Wiersma. The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, which is representing Gonzalez and the gay-straight alliance, has argued that the Equal Access Act mandates that if a school allows one non-curricular group to meet on campus, it must allow all other non-curricular groups to meet there. But Gibbs said other courts have found that only people, not organizations, can sue under the federal act. He also said schools are subject to the law, but individuals affiliated with schools, such as principals, are not. Gonzalez has said that she and a handful of other students tried in September to form the gay-straight alliance to provide a safe environment for students to talk about homophobia and to promote tolerance of one another, regardless of sexual orientation. But Wiersma refused to recognize the club, which has more than 60 members and has met at a public library and a Pizza Hut. Gibbs said the principal had a responsibility to refuse the club. Florida statute requires schools to teach abstinence, "while teaching the benefits of monogamous heterosexual marriage." The gay-straight alliance requires members, even heterosexual students, to be "allied" with sexual orientations that the school is mandated to discourage, according to the defendants' motion. School board members have said that they did not formally discuss whether the gay-straight alliance should be allowed at the school, and Wiersma does not have the authority to make decisions for the board, Gibbs said. Robert Rosenwald, the ACLU's lead counsel on the case, could not be reached for comment Tuesday. Gibbs said he expects the judge to rule on the motion sometime in January or February. Source: palmbeachpost.com |
