Chicago to Open "Gay" High School

By Anastacia Mott Austin

Chicago’s Board of Education is set to vote on October 22nd to determine the final approval status of 18 schools.

This ordinarily would not merit national news coverage, but one of the proposed schools – the School for Social Justice, Pride campus – is primarily aimed at serving gay and transgendered teens.

Studies have long shown that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered (LGBT) teens face much higher dropout rates from high school than heterosexual teens. In addition, LGBT teens are three times as likely to skip school because they fear for their safety.

Released along with the announcement about the school was a survey from the Gay Lesbian and Straight Education Network, which involved over 6000 middle and high school students from 2003. Ninety percent of the gay and transgendered teens said they were regularly harassed at school, and more than 60% said they were afraid for their safety.

Supporters of the idea of a separate school for gay teens say that it’s about time these students had a place to learn where they could feel safe and free from daily judgment. Chicago district schools chief Arne Duncan told reporters, "We want to create great new options for communities that have been traditionally underserved." Added Duncan, "If you look at national studies, you see gay and lesbian students with high dropout rates."

Opponents of the plan say that instead of segregating gay students, there should be more effort across the board to foster tolerance and awareness of the issues facing these students.

The curriculum would include, along with regular high school subjects, history and literature lessons specifically aimed at sexual identity and other topics of sexuality, as well as introducing gay "heroes" from history to help shore up the self-esteem of gay students.

Bill Greaves, a liaison to the Chicago schools on LGBT issues and a member of the Pride school design team, told reporters, "We will teach the history of all people, but we are just going to make sure [gay role models] are not invisible in that history."

Some supporters said they hoped the school would create more open lines of communication between gay teens and their parents. Many teens do not tell their parents of their sexual identity until they are older, but proponents of the school say that the promise of attending school free of harassment might prove to be an incentive to open dialogue between parents and gay teens.

The school would not legally be allowed to ask students their sexual identity, and the student body would be chosen by a lottery made up of students who had requested to attend the school.

Duncan emphasizes that this will not, in fact, be "the gay school," and that most of its 600 or so students will in fact be straight. The difference is that issues of the LGBT teen community will have some focus, and gay teens will have a place where they feel safe from persecution. Duncan says he hopes that all students will be drawn to the campus’s college-prep curriculum and focus on social justice.

Adds Duncan, "I think there is a niche there we need to fill."