America's 1st All-Gay High School

[Nyufrost]

This is pretty interesting.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A school in New York's Greenwich Village will reopen in September as America's first publicly run high school for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students, officials said on Monday.

Although The Harvey Milk School has been operating with two classrooms for 20 years, $3.2 million is being spent by the City to expand it to take 100 students. Named after a gay San Francisco politician assassinated in 1978, the school will be funded jointly by the city education department and a gay rights youth advocacy group.

"Everybody feels that it's a good idea because some of the kids who are gays and lesbians have been constantly harassed and beaten in other schools and this lets them get an education without having to worry," Mayor Michael Bloomberg told reporters at his daily briefing on Monday.

But the head of the New York State Conservative Party said the school was a waste of tax dollars.

"This makes absolutely no sense," Long told the New York Post newspaper. "There's no reason these children should be treated separately."

The school's first principal is William Salzman, a former Wall Street executive who has recently worked as an assistant high school principal.

Salzman was quoted in Monday's New York Post as saying, "This school will be a model for the country and possibly the world."

It will specialize in computer technology, art and culinary programs. It will also follow the education department's new mandatory English language and mathematics programs.

[tsian]

I'm not sure if this is good or not. On one hand, it might give struggling teens a safe haven from prejudice and fear. On the other hand, it's segregation and side steps dealing with the real problem.

I can see it being used as a temporary safe haven for unstable kids... but as a permament school I'm not sure I approve of it.

[TerraFrost]

i don't think this is a good thing... if we start building all gay schools, then what about all black schools, and then all female public schools? the whole point of public schools is that they discriminate, as private schools can, and... bah. i don't like it. i don't think gay people should have to inconvience themselves by driving to one school that will most likely will not be as close to them as some other school. i further believe that this will only encourage bad opinions about gays. if people don't have to see them every day, then how are their prejudices going to be countered?

also, if homosexuality is a problem in schools, i think all public displays of sex should be banned.

finally, i think this makes gays an easier target. now, they're all in one nice location.

[shahmask]

i agree with both tsian and yawny. and yawny, well said! and another thing. where the hell are the school faculty and staff while the kids are getting harrassed and beaten? our high school never had problems with gays getting beaten. now, outside of school, there was one beeting that i heard of. and this is in a semi conservative suberb.

[Gigafrost]

Actually, there have been all-black schools in the past. In the instance of colleges, though, it was struck down because it's impossible for blacks and whites to receive the same education when the environments are so drastically different. The idea is that if you, say, went to law school in a "white" school then you'd meet people most likely to make it and all that. The friends you meet are much more likely to make it into offices, you'll also be recommended more often, etc. By segregating the two you are, in essence, severely decreasing the chances for that minority to have these benefits. hope I explained that right because it sure didn't seem right.

As for this, there are mixed feelings about it. My ultimate feeling is that this is stupid. If there were an all-gay school I'd prefer it to develope naturally (IE, all the students in the area happened to be gay). Purposely creating a seperate facility for people with different sexual preferences or non "standard" genders (IE, the male\female genders that people are familiar with) serves to seperate them from the general populace.

Also, I don't see how this will really change the teasings. If you ask me, it might hurt more to know that people are going out of their way to make fun of you as opposed to just making fun of you because you happen to be there. Really, there are some people who are really ruining things for others.

[TerraFrost]

Actually, there have been all-black schools in the past. In the instance of colleges, though, it was struck down because it's impossible for blacks and whites to receive the same education when the environments are so drastically different.

yeah... it was outlawed by the supreme court in 1957. although it wasnt a college, but a high school in little rock:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/kids/civil ... chool.html

i agree with your other points, and for your rationale for the decission to remove segregation.

[Nyufrost]

I am all for equal rights but not for special rights.

Kids are beat up in schools for all different reasons. We can't open special schools for all the kids who are beaten up just because they wear glasses or because they are Arab, Asian, Caucasian, Hispanic or Black or for those who get beat up for dressing differently or being nerds or whatever.

There are all sorts of cliques in high school and, given the choice, each one might want to go to school with only others they think fit into their "group" but how reasonable is that?

Like Shahmask said, where are the faculty when all this is happening? It seems to me that the schools where this has happened need better "policing" and more astringent penalties for offenders.

I agree with Giga that this might increase teasing rather than lessening it ... sort of like how a lot of kids make fun of other kids who ride the "special bus" to school.

[Neerowolf]

i don't think this is a good thing... if we start building all gay schools, then what about all black schools, and then all female public schools?

Not the girls! And besides, one of my old friends was gay, and hes still cool. It gets boring without different types of kids in our school. Thats why our schools better, theres variety. And girls.

[Evlfrost]

Well I think that it is very hipocritical. Why just give gays their own school? It also defeats the point of public education.

[tsian]

Well I think that it is very hipocritical. Why just give gays their own school? It also defeats the point of public education.

Well, exactly. While I could see some sort of trauma/treatment classroom for gay people who had some horrendous experience... it could only be justified in the sense of a temporary rehabilitation/recovery.

[TerraFrost]

the local newspaper summed it up quite nicely, i think...

"...segregating homosexuals from the rest of society only fosters n environment of ignorance, which leads to crippling stereotypes and labels"

also...

"The earlier homosexual students are exposed to diversity, the better prepared they will be for taking on an American society in which they are a minority."

this high school is going to be doing heterosexual people as much harm as it does to homosexual people...

[tsian]

Quite right.

[OmegaFrost]

The only thing I have to say aobut his is that the one thing that still amazes me is the fact that people just keep getting stupider.
This will only meen that people will understand homosexuals even less than they already do (I know very little about them myslef other than the obvious) and people always seem to have this bad habit of destroying that which they cannot understand.

[BattleFrost]

I wonder who is in favor of this cause it makes me sick. I do know some that are gay and it makes me nervice around them but they are my freinds.

[tsian]

. I do know some that are gay and it makes me nervice around them but they are my freinds

I've never understood being nervous around gay people. Unwanted affection is wrong, whether it comes from someone of the same sex or opposite sex. Most people know this and anyone who tries to push themselves on you is clearly in the wrong and probably not worthy of being your friend.