A relatively new student organization at Warsaw Community High School is being blamed by some students for the denial of privileges to other student clubs.

After the Gay-Straight Alliance became a recognized organization early this year, administrators decided to look into what the school could legally provide for student clubs.

After studying the issue, it was determined that the Ski Club, for example, can no longer use a school bus for free and is no longer covered under the school's insurance liability policy.

"We all feel badly that this has happened to the students, but we had to approach it from a legal standpoint," said Dr. Jennifer Brumfield, WCHS principal.

GSA, the Ski Club, Fellowship of Christian Athletes and Octagon Club are not school-sanctioned organizations, Brumfield said, and therefore do not have the same privileges as school-sanctioned organizations.

The difference between sanctioned and nonsanctioned clubs, she said, is that sanctioned clubs must support a school curriculum. Speech Team, Mathletes, Spanish and Latin clubs and Science Olympiad, for example, all have a basis in the school's curriculum.

GSA, Ski Club, FCA and Octagon Club do not, but "by law, we have to let them meet," Brumfield said. The nonsanctioned clubs only are afforded the use of the facility.

The law to which Brumfield refers is the Equal Access Law, passed in 1984, that reads: "It shall be unlawful for any public secondary school which receives Federal financial assistance and which has a limited open forum to deny equal access or a fair opportunity to, or discriminate against, any students who wish to conduct a meeting within that limited open forum on the basis of the religious, political, philosophical or other content of the speech at such meetings."

Once GSA, a loosely knit group of about 20 students, began meeting at WCHS, Brumfield said, it was discovered that the Ski Club, which in the past was assumed to be sanctioned, is not. Now the club will have to pay to rent a bus for club ski trips and will have to buy its own insurance.

But students who blame GSA for the Ski Club's increased expenses are unfair, Brumfield said.

"How sad that we have to have a scapegoat," she said. "Had we realized that the Ski Club was not sanctioned, we would have stopped the bus over liability issues."

All nonsanctioned clubs also must pay a $50 damage deposit for the room where they meet and one or more faculty members must be present.

GSA's existence is low-key and not always well-known, Brumfield said.

"I've only had one student come to me with a concern that GSA was here," she said. "Some teachers don't even know."

"We are not a gay club," said Brittany, a senior at WCHS. "It's a gay-straight alliance."

The club's mission statement, taken from the Gay-Straight Alliance Network, is to create safe environments in schools for students to support each other and learn about homophobia and other oppressions; to educate the school community about homophobia, gender identity and sexual orientation issues; and to fight discrimination, harassment and violence in schools.

Brumfield said the organization began informally over the past three or four years. "Some students had questions about their sexuality or were friends or children of gays and lesbians," she said. They met to discuss those issues.

"Some of the kids who were questioning their sexuality didn't feel comfortable talking to their parents," she said. "We were glad they could meet at school to talk. If they couldn't talk at school, where would they go?"

Brittany currently is the only heterosexual member of the club. She joined to help support some of her friends.

"When I found out one of my friends is gay, ... I decided to join to help all the people in the school get more respect," she said. "In GSA, everyone's really cool, all really accepting and supportive."

GSA is basically a support group, Brittany said, that stresses diversity and acceptance. "We are not a gay and lesbian dating service," she said.

Brumfield said she talked to the parents of the students who wanted to start the GSA. "My concern was for their safety," she said of the students, and she talked to the parents about the possible backlash.

Brittany said club members are discreet and, even though her parents are not happy about her membership in the club, she is not going to leave it.

"I kind of see it as everybody's problem because people are ignorant and they need to learn," she said.

Club members are wearing rainbow lanyards with their school IDs so that any other students wanting to join the club will know who to contact. [[In-content Ad]]