The first-ever high school designated for gay and lesbian students is set to open this fall in New York.
The Harvey Milk High School is an expansion of a 1984 city program consisting of two small classrooms for 50 gay students. The school will now hold eight classrooms on a 17,000-square-foot lot, supported by a $3.2 million grant from New York’s Board of Education.
According to the Sexual Information and Education Council of the United States, 41.7 percent of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth do not feel safe in their school.
The council also reports that 28 percent of gay teens drop out of school annually, which is more than three times the national average.
But due to a $3.2 million renovation program approved by Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the New York Board of Education, the once-small alternative school program will now be a full-fledged accredited high school for LGBT youth.
Mayor Bloomberg addressed the issue in late July.
“I think everybody feels that it’s a good idea because some of the kids who are gays and lesbians have been constantly harassed and beaten in other schools. It lets them get an education without having to worry.”
The push for the school was propelled by the Hetrick-Martin Institute, a gay-rights advocacy group that managed and financed the program since its inception in 1984. Named after San Francisco’s first openly gay city supervisor, Harvey Milk, who was assassinated in 1978, the school currently has 100 students enrolled for the fall of 2003, with attendance expected to reach 170 by fall 2004.
According to the Hetrick-Martin Institute’s official website, The Harvey Milk School is “founded in a highly individualized approach: small classes, great student-to-teacher ratio and the constant support of counseling and case-management staff in the Supportive Services Departments.”
The school also offers after-school programs including tutoring, academic programming and employment training and internship programs.
Not everyone is impressed with the school, however. New York State Conservative Party chairman Mike Long criticized the creation of the school to the New York Post, saying, “Is there a different way to teach homosexuals? Is there a gay math? This is wrong.”
University of Wisconsin women’s studies professor Mariamne Whatley said she realizes the problems the school could present, but she also sees the benefits.
“It would be nice if we could solve the problem within the regular high schools, but as a tempering measure, I think it’s a good idea,” Whatley said. “Homophobia is a real issue involving real violence, and until it can be fixed, this may be what has to be done.”
Whatley is the department chair of UW’s women’s studies program, which offers a course on lesbian culture as well as several other courses that touch on lesbian issues.
“It sort of seems like we are letting people off the hook by creating a separate school for gay students,” Whatley said. “It’s like, ‘Oh, you won’t change your views and treat them right? Well, we’ll just remove them from the school then,’ which is not right either.”
But with issues such as dropping out of school, suicide, depression and physical violence a large part of the debate, “something had to be done,” according to Whatley.
The National Mental Health Association’s website reports that 69 percent of LGBT youth reported experiencing some form of harassment or violence at their school and that LGBT youth are three times more likely to attempt suicide than other youth.
