American Civil Liberties Union Intervenes In Battle To Form Gay-Straight Alliance At Flour Bluff Independent School In Corpus Christi Texas; Threatens Legal Action Unless School Concedes Its Actions Violate Federal Law

The American Civil Liberties Union has announced that Flour Bluff Independent School has until Wednesday to approve a proposed club supporting gay and lesbian students or it may face a lawsuit, reports that Corpus Christi Caller. Attorneys with the national ACLU and its state affiliate are representing Bianca "Nikki" Peet, the 17 year old senior, who has unsuccessfully petitioned Flour Bluff High School to form a Gay-Straight Alliance. A letter sent to Superintendent Julie Carbajal, attorneys from the ACLU said the district is violating federal law, and urged Carbajal to issue a statement permitting Peet to form a club, promising to treat it the same as other non-curricular clubs meeting on campus and to refuse to tolerate any retaliation for students, teachers or staff members supporting Peet's club. Carbajal did not comment. Previously she has said the district has no plans to approve the proposed club because it violates district policy disallowing non-curriculum clubs from meeting on campus. The ACLU said that, despite the district's policy, many other extracurricular clubs have been meeting on campus therefore Flour Bluff High School cannot refuse the proposed Gay-Straight Alliance without violating the First Amendment and the Equal Access Act. "No Texas public school student should be treated the way Nikki has been treated by the Flour Bluff ISD administrators, and no Texas public school district is above the law," the Texas ACLU legal director Lisa Graybill said in a statement. Despite the district's policy, at least four clubs not tied directly to the school's curriculum exist at Flour Bluff High School, said Manuel Quinto-Pozos, a staff attorney for the ACLU of Texas, including the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, which, according to Carbajal, has since been asked to meet off campus. That group is no longer listed online among the high school's extracurricular activities. The other three (the chess club, the Key Club and Family, Careers, Community Leaders of America) still exist at the high school although courts have ruled that these specific clubs are not tied to school curriculum, Quinto-Pozos said. When Flour Bluff High School allowed these clubs to meet on campus, it set a precedent requiring it by federal law to also permit the proposed Gay-Straight Alliance. The federal Equal Access Act mandates schools to offer equal opportunities for all students to organize. The legislation, approved in 1984, was seen then as an attempt to protect Bible study and other religious groups. The law has since been invoked by supporters of gay rights to protect the formation of Gay-Straight Alliances in schools. Though Carbajal has said the district will not allow any non-curricular clubs to meet on campus, banning all clubs now would constitute unlawful prior restraint on Peet's speech, the ACLU said in its letter to the superintendent. "The school district's actions have been ruled to be unconstitutional and unlawful in numerous other cases that we've litigated," said Christine P. Sun, senior counsel with the national ACLU's Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender and AIDS Project. Peet said she is grateful for ACLU's intervention, saying "I'm hoping it will show the school that we want to resolve this issue in a peaceful manner." Gay activist Paul Rodriguez, the president of the Gay-Straight Alliance at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, said he is proceeding with plans to protest outside the school Friday morning.