Ga. Schools May Require Parents' Approval for Students Joining Gay-Straight Alliances
by Jim Brown
March 24, 2005
(AgapePress) - A proposal being considered by the Georgia Board of Education would require high school students to obtain parental permission before joining homosexual-affirming clubs at school.
State Superintendent Kathy Cox is asking the Georgia Board of Education to adopt a policy that would require all students to obtain parental permission before joining an extracurricular club. Senator Ralph Hudgens introduced a similar proposal in the state legislature, but withdrew his sponsorship of the measure at Cox's request.
Hudgens believes many Georgia parents were not aware of the presence of Gay-Straight Alliance clubs in their children's schools. He says, "We just felt that this is an issue that the parents need to be fully informed about. If they're going to have to give permission for their student to take an aspirin in school, then I feel like they ought to be asked permission for their students to join a club such as this."
The reason Cox asked the lawmaker to withdraw his sponsorship of the Senate measure, he explains, was because she felt the parental permission rule could be implemented much faster if it were adopted by the Board of Education instead of having to gain full approval from the state legislature.
Senator Hudgens believes the rule, if adopted, would provide a strong deterrent to student involvement in pro-homosexual clubs. "If this was the Spanish club, or the French club, or the Engineering club, or the Future Farmers of America club, then I probably wouldn't have a lot of concern about it," he says. "But homosexuality, as far as I'm concerned, is a learned behavior. It's not genetic -- they've never been able to prove that there's a gene that causes this. It's something that is learned."
State Superintendent Cox is urging the members of the Georgia Board of Education to approve the new parental permission rule next month. If approved, the rule would be implemented in high schools throughout the state in September.
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
