Metro Students Want Anti-discrimination Policy

About 50 Metro students and supporters of an anti-discrimination proposal turned up at the Metro School Board meeting Tuesday night.

The so-called “Support Student Safety” coalition wants Metro Schools to adopt a policy that includes anti-discrimination language for sexual orientation and gender identity.

Eric Austin is a junior at Hume Fogg High School. He hopes a new policy makes will make students stop bullying and using inflammatory language that hurts gay and lesbian students.

“Back in the 60s and 50s, the civil rights era, people threw out racial slurs just in their everyday speech and today it’s looked at as something that’s just not accepted. And we hope this policy is one step towards guaranteeing that anti-gay slurs are looked at the same way.”

The board took no action on the issue last night. It has to be formally presented by a member of the administration before board members can vote on it. If the measure passes, Metro will join Knox County and Memphis City schools in expanding its anti-discrimination policy.