Alliance at Malverne High School

At Malverne High School, students have taken action against bullying into their own hands with the resurrection of the Gay Straight Alliance, a club that promotes unity and understanding.

Before graduating in 2006, student Rasheda Walcott brought the GSA to Malverne High School. It was a bold move in the eyes of the Long Island Crisis Center whose Bill Borman Memorial Scholarship Fund said Walcott took a “brave stand against homophobia,” and called the West Hempstead resident a “role model for tolerance and social justice in her community.” The group went on to award Walcott, 17 at the time, a college scholarship.

Throughout the last four years the club “fizzled out,” according to high school music teacher Kenneth Zagare. But last year, when students expressed the need for a comfortable and safe environment, he decided to revive it.

“I think it’s something that every high school should have,” Zagare said. “It’s a place for kids to go where they feel safe, where they can talk about their issues. A lot of these kids might have home lives where they can’t discuss this with parents or they really have nobody that supports them, and a club like this could potentially prevent a suicide. … We’re doing this to be proactive. We want the kids to feel like they have a safe haven.”

Zagare reached out to and registered with LIGALY, the nonprofit Long Island Gay and Lesbian Youth organization that monitors all Gay Straight Alliance clubs in Long Island schools. He received training from the group’s safe-schools liaison, who visited Malverne High School earlier this year to meet with and train the GSA’s five student leaders. Zagare also took the proper steps to ensure that the GSA, which has about 35 student members, received proper recognition as a real club from the school board.

Although it has yet to hold its first general-membership meeting, the club has already kicked off the 2010-11 school year with various activities, including a National Coming Out Day campaign on Oct. 14. The campaign, which focused on coming out against bullying and in favor of safe schools, was a success, according to Zagare. The majority of the school participated in the campaign, wearing buttons and stickers, and stopping by the GSA’s booth to learn about the club. “It was very well-received by the community, by the administration and well-supported by all the teachers,” said Zagare, who serves as the club’s advisor.

The campaign’s timing was perfect, according to Zagare, as it offered students an opportunity to talk about an alleged bias crime that had occurred earlier that week. Last Thursday, police arrested three local teens, including Lakeview resident Chase Morrison, for allegedly assaulting a 14-year-old boy based on his perceived sexual orientation. Police classified the assault as a hate crime, noting the perpetrators made disparaging remarks about homosexuality. The verbal harassment had been ongoing, police said, but this was the first time it became violent. Nassau County Police Commissioner Lawrence Mulvey said bullying had been “a big component” of the assault.

“It definitely hit close to home,” Zagare said of the assault. “Although [Morrison] didn’t go here, a lot of students were like, ‘Oh my god, that’s Lakeview. That’s, like, here.’ The GSA provided students with a place to talk about it and about their concerns.”

Zagare added that both the incident itself and the campaign’s timing proved that clubs like the GSA are essential. He posed the question: “Had these students maybe had something in their own school like this, would it have happened? I don’t know.”

It was this way of thinking — even before the recent spate of anti-gay crimes in the metropolitan area — that led Zagare to resurrect the GSA. “This isn’t something that I had in my school,” said Zagare, who graduated from Hauppauge High School in 2001, “which really made me more passionate about reviving it. At my school, the word ‘faggot’ was a daily utterance.”

The music teacher, who also oversees all of the high school’s choirs and serves as its musical director, went on to explain the importance of GSA as a tool for solidarity.

“We have just as many straight kids in the club, if not more, supporting and saying that they’re allies and they are against the bullying of their gay, lesbian, transgender, bisexual friends,” Zagare said. “So that’s really what the club focuses on — the alliance aspect of it: to bring everybody together and to end the name calling and the bullying.”

In the coming months, the GSA will be holding meetings, discussions and movie nights. It’s also planning a number of events, including a “Coffee House” night during which students will gather for coffee, snacks, music and poetry. This spring it will hold a Day of Silence event and partner with the Students Against Drunk Drivers club for a No Name-Calling Week campaign.

Those interested in learning more about Malverne High School GSA can email Zagare at KZagare@malverne.k12.ny.us.

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