Source: Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun Times
The team behind a plan to open Chicago's first public high school aimed at gay and lesbian students pulled the plug Tuesday on a watered down version of the plan.
The Chicago Board of Education was set to vote on the proposal Wednesday, but the educators who had been pushing the plan asked to be taken off the agenda late Tuesday, according to both Chicago newspapers.
As late as Tuesday morning, some advocates were pushing the idea that the change -- which deleted all specific references to gay students from the mission statement and changed the school's name -- was a good compromise, Chicago Tribune reports.
But on Tuesday, other members balked, Chicago Sun Times reports.
"There are some members of the design team who felt it was watered down too much and there was not enough consensus . . . to move forward as it stood," district spokesman Michael Vaughn is quoted saying by the Tribune.
"When we tried to compromise as much as we could with our language, even changing our name, in the end, the design team couldn't fully agree that this proposal should go through,'' one team member, Katherine Hogan, told WTTW-Channel 11's "Chicago Tonight" Tuesday, according to Sun Times.
Hogan, a literature teacher at Social Justice High School, insisted the design team had the "full support'' of Schools CEO Arne Duncan and would "absolutely'' submit an "even stronger'' version of the plan next year, in time for the school to open in 2010, as planned.
The organizers, members of the School for Social Justice in Little Village, issued a statement late Tuesday saying they plan to go before the board next year and have the school open in 2010, the Tribune reports.
Andy Thayer, co-founder of the Gay Liberation Network, said most speakers at public meetings supported the original proposal, according to the Sun Times. He questioned what role Daley's public comments and "private conversations" with ministers played in the school's fate.
"It seems pretty apparent to me that some private pressure has been put on the design team that has led to this current juncture,'' he said. "It's a complete end run around the public participation process."
Source: Gay-lesbian high school plan dropped | Chicago Tribune
No gay high school -- at least not in '09 | Chicago Sun Times
Last modified: 19 Nov 08 09:09
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