EDITORIAL: Support needed for LGBT students

What ever happened to "stupid" or "ridiculous"? As students at Plymouth Canton Educational Park have discovered on a day-to-day basis, those words have been replaced with "gay." Grammatically speaking, gay doesn't even mean what students intend when they use it in the all-too-common and offensive expression "that's so gay."
That's where school administrators come in. Or at least that's where they're supposed to.
PCEP's Gay-Straight Alliance is getting in gear with making LGBT students visible, giving them a voice and make people see that they're more than a butt of a joke. But until other teachers jump on the bandwagon with GSA advisor and teacher Gretchen Miller, who's been instrumental in helping to make LGBT students safe on campus, these students will sit on the sidelines.
By marketing a GSA on the school's TV station, in classrooms and on hallway bulletin boards like PCEP has, more LGBT and ally students will be inclined to join. But until schools make LGBT pupils feel inclusive instead of inferior to their peers, the harassment they deal with — from name calling to physical bullying — will continue.
The results of a Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network report indicated that GSAs, or similar students clubs, along with supportive faculty members and comprehensive anti-bullying policies promote a safer school environment.
Encouraging a welcoming environment for LGBT students not only allows them to feel comfortable, but also makes other students aware of them. And here's hoping they'll be more careful in choosing their words.
But now other sexual identities and races are getting molded into the mix of immature catchphrases that spawn hurt. As one PCEP teacher pointed out, a student said to another, "That's so lesbian." After the teacher corrected her, the student looked baffled and asked the teacher if it would be OK to say, "That's so ghetto."
Teachers instruct students on wars of yesteryear. On the day we won our Independence. On all the elements of the periodic table. But they also play an important role in teaching students what different variables mean. After all, two variables together don't always equal the same thing.
Gay used to mean happy. It used to mean a mutual attraction between people of the same sex. To some people, though, gay's the new stupid. And only when all educators get the guts to say, "stop" will pupils feel inclusive in the student body.
While we don't know how or why Stevenson High School allegedly stopped the organization of a GSA, we do know that until gay people are treated as equals far and wide, groups where children can feel comfortable, open and safe shouldn't be dismissed. And asking LGBT students to join a Diversity Club (like many schools have), which is an all-inclusive club for people of various races, sexual orientations and genders, is the same as asking them to be open about their sexual orientation to the chess club or the art club or the ski club.
GSAs are instrumental in helping LGBT students feel as important as their peers. And if there's gay discrimination among adminstrators, how can we expect any thing less from the student body?