Student Bayli Silberstein will deliver over 25,000 signatures pressing board to allow school club

MEDIA ADVISORY

CONTACT: ACLU of Florida Media Office, 786-363-2737, media@aclufl.org

The ACLU of Florida and local supporters—including 8th grader Bayli Silberstein—will attend the Lake County School Board meeting on Monday, February 18 to speak out against the board’s proposal to ban all non-curricular student clubs in an attempt to prevent Bayli from forming a Gay-Straight Alliance to combat anti-gay bullying at Carver Middle School.

Bayli Silberstein, the 14-year-old student whose effort to form a Gay-Straight Alliance would be thwarted by the school’s proposed ban, and the ACLU will deliver a petition with over 25,000 signatures urging the school board to allow the GSA and all other non-curricular student clubs.

“I’m excited by all the support I’ve gotten,” said Bayli. “We need to do something about the bullying at Carver. I really hope the school board will listen to all these people saying that banning student groups is not fair, and that we should be allowed to form a Gay-Straight Alliance.”

The ACLU will continue to urge members of the Lake County School Board to allow the Gay-Straight Alliance, a right that has been upheld by at least a dozen federal courts since 1998. The board will discuss the proposals on February 18 before they vote the following Monday.

“We hope the public presence at the meeting on Monday will demonstrate to members of the Lake County School Board that the public supports Bayli’s right to form a Gay-Straight Alliance,” said Joyce Hamilton Henry, Mid-Florida Regional Director for the ACLU of Florida. “People are upset and want the school board to know that sacrificing the needs of all students isn’t fair, and that Bayli and her friends should be allowed to form their club to make Carver a safer school.”

Presentation of GSA Petitions at Lake County Special School Board Meeting

February 18, 2013, 2:15pm Eastern Time
Lake County School District
201 W. Burleigh Blvd., Tavares, FL

Bayli and Erica Silberstein as well as Joyce Hamilton Henry will be available to speak with press before the meeting.

To view the petition, please visit https://www.aclu.org/secure/stand-with-bayli.