Virginia school board rejects LGBTQ youth grant won by Lynchburg teens

In the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia two weeks ago, a group of adults running a public meeting created a blueprint for how to belittle, betray and dismiss kids.

“I’m honestly terrified,” one of the teens in Lynchburg admitted as she gathered the courage to address the school board that did this. The kids spoke in quavering voices, some wiping away tears at the Lynchburg City School Board meeting on Nov. 14 as they faced down the adults. Others deployed righteously incandescent teen rage.

The students of E.C. Glass High School were defending the $10,000 nonprofit grant they won — through research, hard work and a rigorous application process — to create a safe space for all kids in their school. The school board said it didn’t want to accept the grant. The kids are part of the Gender and Sexuality Alliance, and the organization helps uplift those in the LGBTQ community who are struggling. You can guess which part of this triggered the adults.

The space they envisioned would have comfortable chairs, blankets and low light. It would be a place to go after a panic attack, bullying, or after being in yet another lockdown drill, imagining their own massacres and texting goodbye notes to their parents as my kid did just a few weeks ago in the America he has inherited.

Thanks to this new normal and the growing awareness among educators of mental health issues among kids, “chill” rooms or “calm down” spaces are becoming common in American schools. But this high school — in the hometown of Liberty University, Jerry Falwell’s evangelical indoctrination camp recently deemed unsafe by a Department of Education investigation — didn’t have one.

The applicants made it clear the space wouldn’t be just for LGBTQ students. It would be for anyone who needs to “just breathe for a second,” said one of the students who confronted the adults Nov. 14.

“Their application was so earnest,” said Justin Tindall, a senior director with the It Gets Better Project , a nonprofit created after LGBTQ teen suicides in 2010. The group is known for its videos offering testimonies from adults, both famous and everyday, who endured bullying, hatred and self-doubt — and survived. One of the group’s programs, 50 States, 50 Grants, awards grants for student projects that remind struggling teens of the hope and promise that life will get better.

“Theirs was a simple one,” Tindall said, unlike the murals, field trips or conferences pitched in other places. “This was a proposal for a safe space for all students.”

Seems like some of the adults — terrified of such a notion — may need a safe space of their own.

Animated by a conservative movement linking parental fears and grievances to anything LBGTQ-related, they reach for their favorite buzzwords — “indoctrination” and “groomers.” They call drag queens dangerous while ignoring the fact that some of the most notorious predators are coaches and priests.

“Let me be very clear,” said Greg Barry, a grandparent and guardian of a student at the high school, when he spoke to the board and quoted scripture. “The LGBTQ agenda in schools is about indoctrination and grooming our children into an evil and wicked lifestyle,” he said, amid boos from the audience.

Comfy chairs and blankets aren’t dangerous. You know that, right, Greg?

“It definitely broke our spirits,” said Brittany Harris, 17, a junior and the co-president of the club, when she heard that the board didn’t want to accept the grant that students had worked on for weeks.

When Brittany and her co-president, Chester Lobb, 17, spoke to the board at last month’s meeting, they felt little compassion coming from the adults. “They were just stone-faced while we were talking,” Chester said. “It was horrifically rude and made us feel like we weren’t even there.”

Some of the school board members insisted that they wouldn’t take money from organization, assuring folks they did deep research into the group (one of the co-founders was sex advice columnist Dan Savage ) and watched the videos on their website that were the alleged “indoctrination” into the “lifestyle.”

The project, which has become a huge, global nonprofit supported by major corporations , celebrities, politicians and President Barack Obama , became famous for more than 70,000 videos that LBGTQ adults posted assuring kids who were bullied, marginalized and flirting with self-harm that life can get better. Tim Gunn, Ian McKellen, Rosie O’Donnell, Portia de Rossi and thousands more gave moving testimonials about their own struggles, seeking to inspire everyone, no matter who they love.

But that message offended some of the school board members.

“There are short videos on the lifestyle that the kids would have to watch,” school board member Letitia Lowery incorrectly suggested.

Nope. The grant doesn’t require kids to watch videos, read literature, wear rainbows or decorate their homes tastefully. The videos are all over the internet and kids can decide for themselves whether to watch.

The grant asks for just one thing — that they identify the sponsors, something that every grant does, one school board member reminded the room. In this case, it would be with one simple phrase anywhere in the space: “It Gets Better.”

The kids voted on a sign with that phrase that’s the size of a standard piece of paper.

Is hope indoctrination?

“I don’t know where this started that it’s going to be indoctrination and talk about sexuality,” said Sharon Carter, one of only two school board members who voted in favor of the grant that night.

Carter also asked whether all grants have been scrutinized like this. And does the board plan to do this in the future?

Some board members said they were open to looking for money in the division’s tight budget to create such a space on their own, totally missing the point.

“We as a board are making it more controversial than it has to be,” said board member Anthony Andrews, who complimented the kids for doing exactly what we want our young people to do: show leadership and initiative, identify problems and find solutions. “If we vote no on this, we send the message that we don’t trust the students.”

Ultimately, the board voted 7-2 in favor of returning the $10,000.

Members debated the grant, gayness and false narratives for longer, one adult in the audience noted, than they talked about the recent closure of two schools. The audience applauded that observation.

The teens heard from members of the community who were appalled by the situation and pledged to return to the board’s next meeting Tuesday to protest the decision and the way the students were treated.

Brittany said she’s trying to be optimistic. “Yeah, it gets better,” she said. “But when is it going to get better for us, specifically?”