High School Suspends Gay Student Who Wanted To Bring Same-Sex Date To Dance
A private Christian high school has suspended a male student who wanted to bring a male date to his Homecoming dance – even after he didn’t go.
Lance Sanderson wanted to bring a date to his high school’s Homecoming dance. The administrators at Christian Brothers High School in Memphis, a college prep school “in the Catholic and Lasallian traditions,” told him no – for “logistical reasons.”
So he started a Change.org petition which garnered almost 24,000 supporters, and his story made headlines.
Apparently, that was exactly what the administration didn’t want.
Even though Lance decided to not even attempt to bring a date – he didn’t even attend the dance Saturday night – Monday morning he was suspended.
When I arrived at school today, the administration told me to stay home for the week.
— Lance Sanderson (@TheLanceLuther) September 28, 2015
“Today I arrived at school around 6:30am,” Lance wrote in a letter to the school’s administrators, to explain his side of the story.
“I sat down to complete my assignments for the classes I planned on attending today. At 7:30am, I was speaking to a teacher when an administrator walked into the room and told me to gather my books and come to the office.
“When I arrived at the office I was told that the administration ‘had 890 other students to worry about’ and could not deal with me. I was told to go home for the week. I said goodbye to a few teachers and students, then drove home.”
Lance says he is “hurt by this exclusion,” and notes that it “goes against the Lasallian value of brotherhood that the school is supposed to stand for.”
“You won’t let me dance with my date and you won’t let me go to class now either. I had hoped that today would be one for positive conversation going forward. Instead, I was sent home.”
“I haven’t done anything wrong and haven’t hurt anybody,” Lance notes. “I want to be welcomed back to the school building today and I want this mean-spirited semi-suspension ended, so that I can do my classwork like anybody else.”
NewNowNext, which first published Lance’s letter today, reports that all he did was “speak out for LGBT students everywhere who experience discrimination from faculty and school administrators citing baseless, outdated policies.”
Apparently, that’s enough to warrant a week’s suspension.
On its website, Christian Brothers High School says tuition and fees total nearly $14,000 a year.
Told they have “890 other students to worry about” while his rights and the respect he deserves are being ignored? Hardly the way to educate anyone.
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Image by Lance Sanderson via TwitterÂ
Hat tip: NewNowNext
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