Letter: Effect of ‘gay school’ exaggerated, intention misunderstood

Friday, November 14, 2008

I would like to point out the erroneous reasoning in Hirschfeld’s piece on a possible “gay school” in Chicago to address the needs of an under-served population of LGBT youth.

The author improperly equates the admission policy of the new School for Social Justice with the "separate but equal" policy. Separate but equal mandated segregation; this school allows any student to attend, regardless of race, sexual orientation, etc., with particular consideration to LGBT youth.

The author blows way out of proportion the effect of one high school in a city of more than 120 public high schools (according to the Chicago Public Schools Web site) and nearly 3 million people. Even if every student attending this school were LGBT (likely not to be the case), the number of LGBT students “removed” from every other high school in Chicago, and thereby removing the possibility of teaching intolerant students “tolerance and acceptance,” would be minute. The mass exodus of LGBT students from every other high school in Chicago implied by the author exaggerates both the intentions of LGBT youth in Chicago and the limited capacity of this school.

Third, the author makes mention of, and yet misunderstands, the intention of this school. There are those students who cannot learn in an environment in which they are continually harassed, much less learn or benefit from “surviving such adversity.” To them “such adversity” is not an edifying experience, it is a debilitating experience. These students need four formative years in an accepting, educational environment in order to surmount the harassment they will face down the road.

Fortunately, the author did not need this type of school. Some students do.

— — Aaron Olsen is a senior from Overland Park.

Comments

juniper08 (anonymous) says...

I think you're exaggerating Hirschfeld's article much more than he exaggerated the issue.
This is the second high school that's been created that is meant to be a haven for gay teenagers meaning it's becoming a trend. No, there won't be a "mass exodus of LGBT students" attending the school, it will only be a portion of the students which any reasonable person would infer. Hirschfeld was making the point that every gay student who attends that high school (which won't be a great number) will not be able to help make changes in their current high school concerning gay people. When I was in high school, I would have loved to attend an LGBT-friendly high school, but instead I was able to make changes in my bigoted small hometown by helping start a gay-straight alliance and got people talking about the harassment that was so often not addressed by administration. My skin's a lot tougher now, I'm stronger and feel more equipped to deal with the real world because of my experiences in high school.
Your third point is the only one that I think has any legitimacy, some teens are at such a great risk that it's necessary to give them an alternate. But Hirschfeld also makes the point that if we have schools like this then the high schools they come out of will take a much greater amount of time becoming more accepting of the LGBT population.
I thought the article was great, Matt. Please keep writing things like this.

November 17, 2008 at 6:42 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

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