(ORLANDO SENTINEL) — More than 100 parents, students, residents and a few pastors showed up at a Lake County School Board meeting Monday afternoon, many wearing red shirts to show support for a proposed Gay-Straight Alliance club at Carver Middle School in Leesburg.
The demonstration came as the School Board weighed a possible ban on extra-curricular student clubs at secondary schools that are not tied to academics. Such a rule would keep the gay-straight student group from forming at the school.
Many people who spoke were overcome with emotion as they urged the board to allow the gay-straight group to meet.
Eighth-grader Bayli Silberstein, an openly bisexual 14-year-old, is heading the effort to get a group started at Carver Middle School after a previous effort was denied last school year. In November, Bayli reapplied but never received word from the principal about whether it was approved or denied.