Georgia High School Students Protest Decision To Allow Derrick Martin To Attend Prom With Boyfriend Fearing Town Will Be Known As Too Gay, Martin’s Father Who Threw Him Out Is School Teacher Of The Year

Predictably, news that a small group of Bleckley County High School students in Cochran, Georgia staged a rally Thursday to protest their high school superintendent’s decision to allow 18 year old Derrick Martin to attend prom with his boyfriend. “We knew Derrick was gay,” Keith Bowman Jr., a fellow senior said, “They don’t want (Cochran) to be known as a pro gay town.” Bowman echoed the sentiment of the protestors, most of who said they were neither concerned by Martin being gay nor by being allowed to bring his boyfriend to prom, but that the school system’s ruling has focused too much attention on the area, apparently, without irony, not realizing a protest might increase said attention. Martin’s parents, also angered by the attention, threw Derrick out of the house this week, Derrick’s father a math teacher at Bleckley County High, named the school’s Teacher of the Year. “People thought it was ok I was going to prom but not okay with me telling anybody,” said Derrick Thursday, “All this media attention has gotten people scared Cochran is an openly gay community.”