GSA attempts to re-establish CFHS presence

Donald Halbmaier/Staff Writer

World language teacher Melissa Breddin and a handful of CFHS students are putting in their two cents to help support the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students of the high school.

There have been other years in which the Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) has been in full effect. This year Breddin has decided to reinstate the organization.

“There has been an increasing need for a support group at the high school,” Breddin said.
The GSA held its first meeting Monday Sept. 27, in room 138. Many organization members said that it was a decent turnout.

“There were around 10 or more people there for the first meeting. It turned out good, and it seems to be like this year’s group is going to be fun and great when it comes to GSA,” junior Maureen Villavicencio said.

With Breddin at the helm of the project as head adviser, the group hopes to bring the GSA back full force. The first step is getting more members.

“Our doors are open to any student or person who is willing to help make the school environment more welcoming to GLBT students,” Breddin said.

T-shirts designs are also in the process of being made and ordered. These T-shirts are going to start the program’s fund raising campaign. With no financial help from the school, GSA members have to raise all the money to do many of their projects and activities planned for the upcoming school year. These include events such as organizing a school wide Day of Silence, attending state conferences and hanging fliers on GLBT issues.

“Even though we aren’t getting financial help from the school, the administration is very supportive of us now and has been in the past,” Breddin said.
All of this work makes getting the program up and running again no easy task. There have also already been some apparent actions of adversity to the program.

“The most frustrating thing is that no other school programs get their fliers torn down. Just ours. I put them up, and within an hour I had seen that many had already been torn down. It doesn’t affect us too much, though. We will always put more back up,” Breddin said.
These acts may not be representative of the entire school.

“The reactions have either been extremely negative or extremely positive from students,” Breddin said.

Despite adversity, the program already has many activities planned for the upcoming months. Breddin and Villavicencio say that they are planning a caroling outing in December and trying to spread the message out to the community by doing some community work.
The GSA will meet every Monday at 7 p.m. in room 138.