Brody's Notes... To Stop A GSA Meeting At School- Texas School District Bans All Clubs

By Mark Singer (Washington DC) FEB 28 | The superintendent of schools for the Flour Bluff Independent School District in Corpus Christi,Texas, has repeatedly turned down requests by  a Flour High School Senior, Bianca "Nikki" Peet, to form a Gay-Straight Alliance club. Superintendent Dr. Julie Carbajal told a local paper that there is no chance that district will approve the proposed GSA.

On Friday the superintendent said that she asked the Fellowship of Christian Athletes to meet off campus while the school district studies the legality of allowing the club while disallowing a club supporting homosexual students.

"Flour Bluff ISD is committed to supporting the cultural diversity of all students in our community. Flour Bluff ISD does not discriminate. We care deeply for our students and make every effort to prepare them for college, careers, and life. We work to consider the needs of all students in regards to the education, vision, mission,and goals of our schools. ...We need to be fair and equitable to all,” Carbajal told The Daily Caller.

Paul Rodriguez, President of the Texas A&M Corpus Christi Gay Straight Alliance who had helped to support and back Peet in her efforts to establish a GSA at the high school argued that denying Peet the chance to create a Gay-Straight Alliance violates the Equal Access Act.
Officials from Flour Buff Independent School District insisted that Flour Bluff High is not subject to the Equal Access Act -- a federal law, passed in 1984, that requires schools receiving federal funding to offer "fair opportunities for students to form student-led extracurricular groups, regardless of their religious, political and philosophical leanings.
The district had previously approved a policy in 2005 that did not allow student clubs not tied to curriculum to meet on campus.

The Fellowship of Christian Athletes, which has been meeting on campus, may not be adhering to that policy, Carbajal told the Daily Caller. She said the district is consulting with its attorneys on the matter.

“We feel like we need to follow the policy in place,” she said. “If we’ve made any wrong judgments then we have to fix that because we are not looking at changing our policy.” 

Carbajal said she respects the differing opinions on her decision but said she hopes people recognize she is going to be fair and equitable to all students.

“We’re not going to do something that lets someone be able to have an advantage over anyone else,” she said.

Upon hearing of Superintendent Carbajal's decision, Rodriguez said:

"What a sad, sad day in Corpus Christi. Hatred and intolerance prevails in Flour Bluff ISD. Rather than allowing the Gay-Straight Alliance to form at FBHS, Administrators have chosen the alternative route of dis-allowing ALL non-curricular clubs to meet on campus. Not only has this district turned its back on the students who could benefit from a GSA, but now has alienated the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and other non-curricular clubs on campus as well."

Manuel Quinto-Pozos, a staff attorney for the ACLU Foundation of Texas told the Corpus Christi newspaper that Flour Bluff Independent School District policy does not trump any precedent it sets by allowing the creation of other clubs that don’t have ties to the school’s curriculum. If the district allows other non-curricular clubs to meet on campus, such as the chess club, it can’t discriminate against other non-curricular clubs. 

“There is a very specific definition to a limited open forum,” Quinto-Pozos said. “It’s definitely triggered by what the school has done to non-curricular groups in the past and not tied to what the school states.”

Flour Bluff High School principal James Crenshaw has chosen to not speak publicly about the issue.