Louisiana Pastor, Parents Vie Against Pro-Homosexual School Club

by Jim Brown
March 19, 2004

(AgapePress) - Parents in conservative St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, want a local high school to dump its Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) club.

Pastor Ken Schroeder with First Baptist Church of Mandeville says the GSA has infiltrated Fontainebleau High School by spreading misinformation concerning the need for such a club. Schroeder and a group of concerned residents are asking the St. Tammany Parish School Board to de-recognize the pro-homosexual club, which he says was approved on the false premise that it was needed to counter "bullying" on campus.

According to the pastor, by establishing a GSA club the school system is putting itself in a position of labeling and targeting for abuse "those who disagree with the idea of homosexuality as a normal lifestyle." In addition, he says, when school authorities sanction a club like the GSA, they are making a statement that the homosexual lifestyle is to be accepted.

Schroeder contends that the school board should not be allowing homosexual behavior to be promoted at the high school. "[T]he board is actually putting themselves and our school system in danger of ... promoting an activity that is essentially not legally possible, because the student body is largely going to be under the age of consent," he says.

The Baptist pastor says the board must adhere to a recent ruling by a federal judge in Texas who barred the formation of a GSA club in the Lubbock Independent School District, which has an abstinence-only policy in teaching sex education.

In that case, the judge ruled that the GSA club's goals violated district and school policies, and acknowledged that parents and the school had the right to control the subject matter discussed on campus. A club based on sexual activity would have violated a school policy banning discussion of sex or sex acts, said an attorney involved in the case.