Boston University Academy students said yesterday that they were surprised and dismayed by John Silber’s closure of the school’s Gay-Straight Alliance last week.
Academy students, eating in a back room at the George Sherman Union during their lunch hour, said they were astonished by the move and worried about its consequences, both for the school’s gay students and its implications for the school’s other clubs.
Silber told the Academy’s Headmaster James Tracy to close the school’s GSA last week and threatened to cut funding if the school failed to comply with his wishes, according to The Boston Globe. BU Spokesman Kevin Carleton said Silber’s reasoning was that the club’s “focus on sexuality” is “inappropriate with the age range with which we are dealing.”
A BU Academy receptionist said Tracy has been instructed by Silber not to comment on the group’s closure.
The club, which existed last year, sponsored activities aimed at promoting tolerance of gay and lesbian issues, including a day of silence to recognize society’s silencing of students who have not yet become openly gay.
While the male students interviewed were candid in sharing their reactions to Silber’s closure of the club, many of them were careful to explain that they were not involved in the group.
Alex Teixeira, an Academy freshman whose sister was in the club, said Silber’s closure of the club was misguided and his reasoning ignorant.
“I don’t think he knew anything about what they do,” he said. “They just hang out and talk and don’t do much else. It’s a place to go and talk with friends — it’s very casual and very relaxed. I’m sure he didn’t know much about it.”
Academy junior Alex Chaconas agreed Silber’s reasoning did not reflect the club’s purpose or activities.
“They didn’t talk about sex,” Chaconas said. “They talked about dealing with parents and other people.”
Colenan Connelly, an Academy freshman from Hingham, said the members of the club he knew were extremely upset by its closing.
Aaron Herfurth, president of BU’s gay and lesbian student group, Spectrum, said Silber’s actions amounted to censorship of a vulnerable population.
“For a good academic institution to survive, you can’t censor every group,” Herfurth said. “Silber’s arguments for why he wanted the group disbanded don’t have much substance.”
Herfurth emphasized the importance of groups like GSAs at both the high school and college levels, saying they provide a multitude of resources and services.
“GSAs are very important to schools like BU and the BU Academy,” he said. “They allow students who are either questioning or don’t know what’s going on or have little information about being openly gay. It’s a great place to have resources and share their feelings.”
Chaconas said the club promoted tolerance among the school’s students, which, in turn, helped keep the environment of the entire school more open. There are a fair number of openly gay students and teachers on campus, according to Chaconas.
“The club was there just to give support to gay and lesbian students because there is a lot of discrimination directed toward them,” he said. “There are GSAs everywhere. It’s good to have support groups for minorities who are discriminated against.
“Being gay is not something that is well-accepted in general, so it’s good to deal with those issues in an open and accepting environment,” he continued. “An open environment is a good environment to pursue rigorous academic studies.”
Anna Ziering, an eighth grade Academy student, said Silber’s move was unreasonable because the club was not mandatory for all students and only promoted tolerance among Academy students.
“It seems to me that if students are not ready to explore their sexuality, they wouldn’t join the alliance,” she said. “It was just a place for people to feel comfortable.”
Teixeira said he is worried about the way Silber is using his power.
“It’s bad that Silber is using his power the way he used it here,” he said. “He could do it for something else that would affect me.”
Ziering refuted the idea that Academy clubs should only be dealing with academics.
“If some clubs have to be academic, then I think they all should be academic,” she said.
Spectrum’s first step will be to contact the head of the Academy’s GSA, according to Herfurth. He said Spectrum’s membership is divided on what concrete action to take in response to Silber’s moves because several of the group’s members want to pursue adding a sexual non-discrimination clause to BU’s admissions policy, an effort which failed during the Spring 2001 semester.
“We’ll see what the group dynamic is about with regard to this,” he said.
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