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Old 04-10-2014, 01:00 PM   #120
MarchHare
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I wonder if some people (including the legislators who voted against the motion) really have no knowledge about what these GSAs are and how they're started up.

Let's say I'm a high school student, and I want to start a chess club that meets once a week at lunch hour to play games and discuss strategy. To get the club started, I first have to ask permission from the school administration to a) give their blessing to my proposed club and b) allow us to meet in an unused classroom during lunch break. If my club requires money, say to buy a few chess sets, I would then c) take my proposal to the student council and ask for funding. Note that this money does not come from the province's taxpayers but rather from private funds raised by the student body and/or their parents (i.e. those school chocolate bar sales you see every fall).

The reason for a) is because schools, quite rightly, cannot allow just any student group to form. For example, it's pretty obvious why a school's administration would put the kibosh on a student group that wanted to start an Aryan Guard club. What Kent Hehr's motion was asking was that schools would have to give their blessing to student-initiated Gay-Straight Alliances. As noted above, this isn't a fiscal matter because there is ZERO taxpayer money required for these groups. The motion was deemed necessary because -- as we saw from the CTV video linked earlier -- some schools are denying students the ability to start these clubs.
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