Eighth grader Bayli Silberstein on
Monday will present a petition urging her school board not to ban
gay-straight clubs.
Silberstein is the 14-year-old teen
whose efforts to form a Gay-Straight Alliance have been rejected for
two years by administrators at Carver Middle School in Leesburg,
Florida.
When the American Civil Liberties Union
(ACLU) of Florida stepped in on behalf of Silberstein, the school
board responded with a proposal to end all non-curricular student
clubs.
She is expected to deliver a
petition signed by more than 25,000 people urging the Lake County
School Board not to approve the proposal.
“I'm excited by all the support I've
gotten,” Silberstein said. “We need to do something about the
bullying at Carver. I really hope the school board will listen to
all these people saying that banning student groups is not fair, and
that we should be allowed to form a Gay-Straight Alliance.”
The board will discuss the proposal on
Monday before scheduling a vote, possibly as early as the following
Monday.
“We hope the public presence at the
meeting on Monday will demonstrate to members of the Lake County
School Board that the public supports Bayli's right to form a
Gay-Straight Alliance,” said Joyce Hamilton Henry, mid-Florida
regional director for the ACLU of Florida. “People are upset and
want the school board to know that sacrificing the needs of all
students isn't fair, and that Bayli and her friends should be allowed
to form their club to make Carver a safer school.”