A collection of students from a Kentucky high school been speaking out against their school officials after certain students were forced to remove their clothes which bore positive LGBTQ messages.
The students have claimed that they were being discriminated against because of the content on their shirts, one of which read, “Queen Queer”, and the other, “Lady Lesbian”.
The Martin County High School students from Kentucky were made to change out of their outfits due to claims from school officials that the school does not “promote that here”.
One student, Lilly Vance, explained that the only students to be told they were in violation of the dress code were those wearing pride outfits, and they were also told that the shirts were a “distraction”.
Speaking to Yahoo News Vance said: “It started off around Thursday of last week … They were wearing gay pride shirts to school and they all got dress coded for it.”
What angered most of the students about this was the fact that their classmates are permitted to wear political t-shirts without consequence.
Vance explained her disbelief at the fact that such political attire is allowed to be worn by other non-LGBTQ students to WYMT :
“Kids wear political shirts. They wear Confederate flag shirts. I just don’t understand what’s so wrong with wearing gay pride shirts. Nothing we’re doing is wrong. All we are doing is expressing who we are.”
“The administrators stated to us that [students] were forced to change because [administrators] were ‘worried for the dangers of the students, and did not want to hear of any students coming back saying they were being bullied.”
What is unsettling about this is the inference that these school administrators think an acceptable excuse for their behaviour is essentially that as opposed to teaching other children the importance of tolerance over bullying, the administrators would rather make the LGBTQ students keep their lives unfairly unrepresented.
The LGBTQ students of the school have said that they are simply looking to be treated fairly and equally.
“I hope that we as LGBTQ students and people as a whole will be treated equally because right now that’s not what it’s looking like,” said Zachary Mills, another student who has spoken out against the discrimination.
It is disconcerting that children are being made to feel as though they are not being listened to and that they do not have the support of the people put in charge of their education.
Superintendent Larry James released a statement regarding the situation at the school.
“Any miscommunication has been resolved,” he said. “We definitely do not want any of our students to feel like they are discriminated against.”
However, despite this, the school is yet to set up a GSA group. GSA stands for Gay-Straight Alliance, and these groups provide an often much-needed support network for members of the LGBTQ movement, especially in cases where people do not have a family that they feel would support them.
The students are hoping to establish a GSA group, despite administrators previously telling them such groups are unnecessary “because we already know who our friends are that support us.”
Lilly Vance explained why she feels a GSA group is so necessary:
“All I want from this is for the younger students at MCHS to know that if they feel discriminated against, that they have a voice and they can speak up and be heard. I hope the administration sees their wrongdoing and corrects it so that the students of their school can feel safe in a place that should already feel safe for students.”
This is far from the first time that a school has hit the headlines for making students remove pro-LGBTQ attire.
Some years ago, Ali Chaney (pictured above) was sent to the principal’s office for wearing a shirt which said, ‘Some people are gay. Get over it!’
The then 13-year-old Chaney was given a different shirt which she was told to change into before bursting into tears and calling her mother.
Chaney’s mother was furious, and accused the school of being discriminatory against her daughter.
The school responded by saying that the shirt was “disruptive” and that they didn’t want “that” in their school, to which Chaney’s mother replied, “You don’t want what in your school? You don’t want gay kids in your school?” in an interview with KCEN-TV .
US statistics show that on average a much higher percentage of non-LGBTQ students are happy than LGBTQ students.
According to Mental Health America’s website, only 37 percent of LGBT youth have reported being happy, while 67 percent of non-LGBT youth said they are, too.
With statistics like these, it is important to offer LGBTQ students a support network which will hopefully allow them a place to feel comfortable and happy.
h/t: Yahoo News
