From Deseret News archives:
Policy to allow gay clubs
New rules in Provo say parents must sign permission slip
However, members of Provo's Board of Education also said they want Utah Superintendent of Public Instruction Patti Harrington to request a legal opinion from the Utah Attorney General's Office regarding the newly enacted policy.
If the attorney general declines to give an opinion, the policy will remain intact, according to Richard Sheffield, a school board member. If the attorney general raises legal issues with the policy, the board will consider changing it.
Provo schools have lacked a districtwide policy until this school year, when a group of students sought to form the Gay-Straight Alliance at Provo High. The club request sparked controversy in Utah County, considered one of Utah's most conservative areas.
The vote on the clubs came after an hour of public comment on the policy from more than 20 people, including leaders from the gay community and opposing conservative groups. The board then spent almost another hour discussing issues surrounding the policy.
The policy applies to students from ninth to 12th grades. Noncurricular clubs — those not directly tied to a class — must be initiated by students, supervised by a teacher and follow state and federal law, which includes the state law that prohibits promotion of sex outside marriage.
Parents, according to the club policy, must sign a permission slip consenting to their children's membership in a noncurricular club.
The policy passed Tuesday night was a revision of the district's original policy, modeled after one used in Granite School District. The board postponed voting on the original club policy last month and sought opinions of attorneys, talked with constituents and tweaked drafts of the policy.
The main difference between the original policy and the one passed Tuesday was that now clubs must show their budgets and funding sources, said Greg Hudnall, Provo School District student services director.
Most school board members said they opposed the idea of a Gay-Straight Alliance, but they passed the policy because they felt there needed to be a written districtwide policy regarding noncurricular school clubs. They also said they did not think many of the people who spoke for and against the policy had actually read it.
It is available on the district's Web site, www.provo.
edu.
"It seems we have carefully crafted this around the (state) code," board member Darryl Alder said.
Sandy Packard, school board vice president, entered the sole dissenting vote.
