A school where gay students could feel safe
CPS considers proposal for campus open to straight kids, too
I was passing a row of newspaper boxes Tuesday when one headline in particular practically jumped off the sidewalk:
"Gay high school planned."
Whoa, I hadn't heard about that.
The accompanying story in the Windy City Times, self-styled "voice of Chicago's gay, lesbian, bi and trans community," reported a new city high school is being proposed to provide a "welcoming, safe education for queer and questioning youth and their allies."
I'd like to think I've got a track record of being enlightened and supportive on gay issues, though admittedly not quite enlightened enough to avoid feeling a little self-conscious when I pulled a copy of the Windy City Times from the box.
Still, my gut reaction was that a separate high school for gay kids didn't sound like such a good idea. Isn't that segregation, even if it's self-segregation? Is it really that rough to grow up gay in the Chicago Public School system? Isn't there a better way?
For answers, I turned to one of the people spearheading the effort, Bill Greaves, director and community liaison for the city's Commission on Human Relations' Advisory Council on LGBT Issues.
"This is not a gay high school," Greaves said by way of opening. "We are not proposing a gay high school."
What they are proposing, Greaves said, is a school that would be open to all high school students, no matter their sexual orientation. What they envision, he continued, is a mixed voluntary enrollment of gay and straight kids running anywhere from 60/40 to 40/60 either way.
The school, which still needs approval from CPS, was originally proposed by the same folks who run the three-year-old Greater Lawndale Little Village School for Social Justice. It would be called the Social Justice High School-Pride Campus.
In the ever-expanding alphabet soup used to cover these issues, the proposal speaks of serving LGBTQA youth, which stands for "lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning students and their allies." I take heart that even the Windy City Times can't keep up.
But no matter what you call the school or how you slice its makeup, the point is to create a special place for gay kids, who often struggle in the high school environment with the result being a high incidence of dropouts and even suicide.
If approved, Pride Campus would open in 2010. A decision may come next month.
Greaves emphasizes that the school of 600 students would offer a college-prep curriculum and wouldn't be allowed to become a dumping ground for CPS problem students. No site has been selected, but organizers say a central downtown location could work best by allowing students to escape discriminatory attitudes in their home neighborhoods.
"It wouldn't be isolating the kids," Greaves added. "We want to teach them how to live in the real world."
The real real world, however, is deemed too unwelcoming at this time -- and too far from being improved -- to rely on solving the problem by simply trying to educate students, teachers and administrators in every school about gay issues.
A CPS community hearing is planned for Sept. 18 at the Center on Halsted, 3656 N. Halsted. Organizers understand their proposal will be controversial, even within the gay community.
Rick Garcia, political director of Equality Illinois, said he shared my initial qualms but is trying to keep an open mind until he learns more about the proposal.
"I just don't like the idea of segregation," Garcia said. "The values that this school should incorporate, every school should incorporate. Every kid should be safe in every school. If we're going to set up a separate school, why don't we put the bullies in those schools?"
But Garcia said he has to weigh those concerns with the real needs of kids now dealing with anti-gay slurs, harassment and violence -- both in school and at home.
"This is why I'm so torn about this," he allowed.
Greaves' answer: "We want students to be safe throughout the system. But for those who are in danger of dropping out, we want to provide this resource."
Greaves sought to differentiate the Chicago effort from Harvey Milk High School in New York, a pioneer of gay high schools. Greaves said Harvey Milk High started as exclusively geared to LGBT students and only later became open to all students. He said Pride Campus will be modeled more closely on Social Justice High School, which grew out of a 2001 hunger strike by Little Village residents seeking a new school.
Greaves said Mayor Daley is aware of the Pride Campus proposal and "wished us luck" but hasn't taken a position.
The one thing I know for sure is that it's sad to realize there could be a need for a school like this.