Sandy Packard, school board vice president, entered the sole dissenting vote.

Packard wanted to postpone the vote. "I'm feeling too rushed, and I don't like to be rushed," she said.

In a meeting before the school board meeting, board members asked the district's two high school principals whether they should cancel all noncurricular clubs so they wouldn't have to have a policy governing such clubs for students. If the district had such a policy, then the Gay-Straight Alliance would not be able to meet.

Both principals told the board they believe noncurricular clubs are valuable to students' high school experiences.

"I've been looking at the list of clubs we have available," said Provo High School Principal Sam Ray. "We have 2,000 (students), and probably less than a third are into athletics and probably less than a third are involved in the arts."

Noncurricular clubs are a way to provide other students with a connection to the school, he said.

"I think we have to be careful we don't over-react," said George Bayless, principal at Timpview High School. "There are other ways to deal with this than to entirely wipe out everything."

Stan Burnett, of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Community Center of Utah and a former Utah County resident, recalled stories his step-children would tell him after school.

"Anyone perceived as gay or different were harassed with horrendous language and at times violence," he said. "As a parent and a member of this community I'd like to add tolerance, equality and safety (are) values of this community."

Stephen Graham, president of the Standard of Liberty Foundation, which believes homosexuality is a choice, said the school board faces a legal liability if it allows the Gay-Straight Alliance.

"The GSA club promotes homosexual behavior, which puts adolescents at risk" for mental health and general health problems, he said.

Cherilyn Bacon, of the Legacy Law Foundation, a group of attorneys that promote traditional values, reminded the school board to consider future outcomes of the policy.

"However, we are aware that the law, as it's presently interpreted, limits what schools and school boards can do."

The Provo High Gay-Straight Alliance met for the first time last month.

Ray said 30 students attended the first meeting and 15 returned with signed permission slips from parents for the second meeting. The number of club members could have gone up because he hasn't keep track of additional meetings, he said.

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E-mail: lhancock@desnews.com