The fight to restart a Gay-Straight Alliance club has a Lake County middle school student suing the school board.
Fourteen-year-old Hannah Faughnan has gotten repeated denials for the club, which she said would combat bullying.
The fight started more than two years ago when then eighth grader Bayli Silberstein was finally able to establish a Gay-Straight Alliance at Carver Middle School by filing a lawsuit in 2013.
However, in August of that year, the school board changed its policies and denied the club from coming back.
"I’m telling my teachers I’m not going to be there Monday because I’m suing the school board,” said Faughnan, who attends Carver Middle.
It’s a suit she filed with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union in 2013 when the school board denied her application to reinstate the Gay-Straight Alliance at the Leesburg middle school.
Faughnan said the club wasn’t about sexuality, but combatting bullying.
“Bullying is an issue in middle school,” Faughnan said. “Everyone goes through it and all students deserve a place to go and talk about it.”
Lake County’s Student Club policies drew national attention earlier that year, and plenty of public comment when Silberstein first tried to start the club.
After a lawsuit, Silberstein got to hold four meetings that year before the board changed its policies. A school administrator said in court Monday she made a mistake when she denied the club’s next application, saying it wasn’t an extension of the school curriculum.
In actuality, Lake County middle school clubs are supposed to be allowed if they promote critical thinking.
The administrator said she told Carver Middle School’s principal, if the club resubmitted its application, it might be approved. Instead, Faughnan continued on with the lawsuit, seeking a judge’s order.
“I want to make sure students after me will be able to form the club also and not have to go through this again,” Faughnan said.
Superintendent Susan Moxley and all five school board members were called to testify Monday, while school board attorneys pointed to disruptions the club caused during its short existence. That led even the judge to question whether they were being honest with their reasons for denying the application.
Silberstein and Faughnan then took the stand.
“It’s crazy,” Silberstein said. “It shouldn’t have gone this far. It shouldn’t have been this hard but I’m proud of Hannah taking over for it and I’m extremely thankful that she cares about it at much as I did.”
The lawsuit also claims the school board’s policy denies students equal access. The school board argues that’s only guaranteed to secondary students, and that’s why they can have separate policies for middle and high school students.