Source: WLMT-TV ABC24, WMC-TV, AP via Tenneseean, NBC News via WCSH
Memphis, TN - At Monday night's Memphis School Board meeting, a small but vocal group of parents and community members gathered in the back of the auditorium waiting to speak their minds about a high school principal who outed two gay students at her school.

"I'm disgusted," Memphis parent Natasha Burnett told WLMT's Eyewitness News Everywhere.  "I'm disgusted by it."

A letter from the American Civil Liberties Union that was made public last week accuses the principal of Hollis F. Price Middle College High School, Daphne Beasley, of compiling a list of dating students, including a gay couple, as part of an attempt to limit public displays of affection on campus. The list was kept in the Beasley's office, but visible to anyone who came into the office, according to the complaint.

"It was very terrifying for one. I am still private or in the closet," outed student Nicholas said, according to an NBC News report.

Nicholas was one of the students outed on the list. Another was his partner Andrew, who is also a student. "I actually had one of my friends say I was trying to steal her boyfriend," Nicholas said.

"Two respectable honorable young men were put in a horrible situation," said former student C.J. Johnson. "They were outed to their parents with no positive support offered in the school system." He said the two outed students were "left to the ridicule and death threats of their peers."

"Firing her may be too harsh,"  Burnett said at the school board meeting, "but something needs to be done about that.   No faculty member should be able to out a student like that."

"There are a number of ways that the situation could have been handled and the way it was handled was totally inappropriate," Burnett said.

Parent Elizabeth Goodman told board members that exposing students as gay would make them objects of discrimination.

District leaders have, thus far, defended Beasley's actions, saying she created the list to keep an eye on certain students because there have been serious problems with inappropriate public displays of affection at HFP this year.

That's not a good enough reason for Goodman, who told the school board members: "Outing students as gay and lesbian does not create a positive environment for the students.  MCS has endangered every other gay and lesbian student and staff member."

She said  school officials "cannot predict what sort of negative impact that is having on that young person's life," WMC-TV reports.

Parent Michelle Bliss agrees, telling WLMT's Eyewitness News Everywhere: "Gay children often end up committing suicide.  There is such a lack of acceptance," says Bliss,  "at home and at school.  And kids can be so cruel."

School Board Commissioner Kenneth Whalum, Jr, said he understands the concerns of these parents, but argued that the principal had to take action.

"Some kids were engaged in sex acts in plain view on campus," says Whalum,  "and that wasn't the first time."

Whalum did not explain how the list kept by Beasley was related to that discipline issue.

He said  the district's legal team have told the school board that no policies or laws were broken by Principal Beasley or any other staff members at HFP.

"From what I'm hearing," says Whalum, "she has not violated anybody's rights.  And certainly if she has, the ACLU has the resources to determine whether or not that's so.  But from what our attorney says...we're good."

There were also supporters of the principal and her actions in the audience.

"I think she should keep her job as principal at Hollis Price. The academics are out of the roof out here. I heard that in the board meeting tonight we got policies and policies have to be followed," parent Sarah Carpenter said.

But parents like Michelle Bliss insisted that school leaders need to listen to the ACLU's demands.   And she's hoping members of the school board will push for a successful resolution to the matter.

"As a parent," says Bliss, "I cannot condone this.  And I can't believe that the Memphis School Board would either."

Full article: Parents Confront Memphis School Board About Outed Gay Students | WLMT-TV
Parents speak out at board meeting about Hollis F. Price principal | WMC-TV
Parents want action; principal accused of 'outing' students | Tenneseean (AP)
Gay High School Students Outraged After Principal "Outs" Them | WCSH (NBC)

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