PROVO — Provo school chiefs approved a new policy governing the formation and oversight of noncurricular school clubs Tuesday, kicking the door open for a Gay-Straight Alliance at Provo High School to continue meeting.
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.
Packard wanted to postpone the vote. "I'm feeling too rushed, and I don't like to be rushed," she said.
In a meeting before the school board meeting, board members asked the district's two high school principals whether they should cancel all noncurricular clubs so they wouldn't have to have a policy governing such clubs for students. If the district had such a policy, then the Gay-Straight Alliance would not be able to meet.
Both principals told the board they believe noncurricular clubs are valuable to students' high school experiences.
"I've been looking at the list of clubs we have available," said Provo High School Principal Sam Ray. "We have 2,000 (students), and probably less than a third are into athletics and probably less than a third are involved in the arts."
Noncurricular clubs are a way to provide other students with a connection to the school, he said.
"I think we have to be careful we don't over-react," said George Bayless, principal at Timpview High School. "There are other ways to deal with this than to entirely wipe out everything."
Stan Burnett, of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Community Center of Utah and a former Utah County resident, recalled stories his step-children would tell him after school.
"Anyone perceived as gay or different were harassed with horrendous language and at times violence," he said. "As a parent and a member of this community I'd like to add tolerance, equality and safety (are) values of this community."
Stephen Graham, president of the Standard of Liberty Foundation, which believes homosexuality is a choice, said the school board faces a legal liability if it allows the Gay-Straight Alliance.
"The GSA club promotes homosexual behavior, which puts adolescents at risk" for mental health and general health problems, he said.
Cherilyn Bacon, of the Legacy Law Foundation, a group of attorneys that promote traditional values, reminded the school board to consider future outcomes of the policy.
"However, we are aware that the law, as it's presently interpreted, limits what schools and school boards can do."
The Provo High Gay-Straight Alliance met for the first time last month.
Ray said 30 students attended the first meeting and 15 returned with signed permission slips from parents for the second meeting. The number of club members could have gone up because he hasn't keep track of additional meetings, he said.
E-mail: lhancock@desnews.com