The Lynchburg School Board didn’t have answers Tuesday night about how it plans to fund projects for the E.C. Glass High School Gender and Sexuality Alliance, a month after it turned down a $10,000 grant the students had won from a national nonprofit that supports LGBTQ+ students.
That rejection is now having an effect across the school division. At Tuesday’s meeting, the board rejected a grant for middle school volleyball equipment, citing a need to further scrutinize how a $5,000 award from a sporting goods chain would be spent.
The school board must approve grants worth at least $5,000 before funds can be used. Last month, the board rejected a $10,000 award that the Gender and Sexuality Alliance planned to use to create a quiet room at the school, citing concerns about where the money came from: The It Gets Better Project, a nonprofit that seeks to prevent suicide in the LGBTQ+ community.
The 7-2 rejection drew attention from local and national media, and board members received death threats last week following a Nov. 30 column in the Washington Post about the decision. The school division has not released details about those threats.
At least a dozen people who spoke at the school board meeting Tuesday criticized the body for rejecting the grant, which also would have purchased menstrual products for students.
Chester Lobb, co-president of the Gender and Sexuality Alliance, expressed sympathy for the board members who had been threatened. But the board’s rejection of the grant “felt like you all turned your back on our community,” he said.
Lobb said the board’s policies should help students learn and be safe, and he asked for the body to reconsider its rejection of the grant from the It Gets Better Project, which provides funding for projects supporting inclusivity at schools in each state.
As conceived by the alliance, the quiet room would be open to any student needing a break from stressful situations during the school day. At the November meeting, the board members all appeared to agree that it was a worthwhile project, and they discussed whether it could be funded through community donations or other sources. At least two board members expressed interest in paying for the room out of their own pockets. Several other schools in the division have similar rooms already in use.
Superintendent Crystal Edwards said the division’s fundraising arm volunteered to serve as a flow-through organization for residents who want to donate to support the alliance projects that would have been paid for by the 50 States, 50 Grants, 5,000 Voices program from the It Gets Better Project.
Vice Chair Martin Day said he asked the city’s commonwealth’s attorney to provide legal advice about whether it would be a conflict of interest for board members to help pay for the quiet room project. He submitted the request on Tuesday, the day of the board meeting and three weeks after board members first floated the idea of contributing their own money for the quiet room.
Many of Tuesday’s speakers, including four students and several teachers, accused the board of using the Gender and Sexuality Alliance’s choice to acknowledge the It Gets Better Project with a small sign on the quiet room as an excuse to turn down money from a pro-LGBTQ+ organization.
Brittney Harris, co-president of the alliance, expressed disappointment that the board “cannot move past personal bias” in order to aid students at the largest school in the division.
During a public comment period that stretched to nearly an hour over its typical 30-minute allowance, only one of around 20 speakers praised the board for rejecting the funds. In the standing-room-only crowd of about 60 people, many attendees held Pride flags and signs saying “We love our LGBTQ students — we support the ECG GSA.”
Following public comment, the board discussed the aftermath of the rejection at length, couching it within discussion of a new grant that was on the agenda: a $5,000 award from Dick’s Sporting Goods to P.L. Dunbar Middle School to provide equipment for the volleyball team.
The board debated the best way to ensure that all grants that come before the school board are considered to the same standards after the scrutiny that was given to the It Gets Better Project grant.
Board member Gloria Preston, who had voted to reject the Gender and Sexuality Alliance’s grant, said that after last month’s vote, “We got a lot of emails from different factions, and part of it was because we hadn’t talked about how [the money] would be used,” she said, citing concerns about equity and whether the grant money would benefit every student.
During a board work session in October and again at the November meeting, E.C. Glass staff had answered questions about the Gender and Sexuality Alliance grant, verifying that the quiet room would be available to all students. And a synopsis of how the grant funds would be spent provided to the board by the alliance emphasized in capital letters that “ALL” students would be able to access the room to calm down if they were dealing with bullying, anxiety or stress.
Board member Christian DePaul indicated that acknowledging grantors or putting their branding on projects was an acceptable recognition of grant funding, though at last month’s meeting, he had objected to the idea of signage in the room naming the It Gets Better Project.
Board member Sharon Carter acknowledged the time it takes to apply for grants and suggested that the board’s policy for approving grants over $5,000 be changed. She said members of other school boards in the area told her that they don’t review grant funding until an award exceeds a much higher threshold than the one used by Lynchburg. Carter was the only board member present who had voted to accept the funding last month; Anthony Andrews, who also had voted in favor of the grant, was absent Tuesday.
“This is not a good look if we keep turning these grants down,” Carter said.
Board member Farid Jalil suggested that anyone seeking to apply for a grant ask the board for permission first.
Ultimately, the board rejected the Dick’s Sporting Goods grant, though Day said the board intends to reconsider the award when it receives more information about how the money would be spent. He noted that the E.C. Glass students had supplied an itemized budget for how they’d spend their grant money.
“They’re now screwing over two schools instead of just one,” Lobb, the alliance co-president, said in an interview after that portion of the meeting. “Instead of us being able to have the money to fund our school and our students, they’re not giving Dunbar money to fund their sports and their school.”
In that same conversation, Harris, the fellow co-president, said that if the board wanted to change the way it evaluates grants to further scrutinize sources of funding, it should have done so before considering the alliance’s grant.
“They are very clearly discriminating against where our grant came from,” she said.
“They want to delay us until we either give up” or find another source of funding that doesn’t require the board to sign off on support from a pro-LGBTQ+ organization, she said. “All they’re doing is delaying and delaying it until we give up.”
The meeting exposed another issue for Lynchburg schools: the apparent violation of a 2020 state law mandating that middle and high schools provide menstrual products in all school bathrooms.
Katie Cyphert, a teacher in the school division, cited the law when she spoke at the meeting. “Supplies aren’t consistently stocked in bathrooms,” she said, and staff members have solicited donations or purchased supplies on their own for student use. Given the number of bathrooms in the division that likely need machines installed or supplies stocked, she suggested, “Perhaps board members can solicit grants or donations that meet your political persuasion or ask city council for a budget amendment.”
Students from the E.C. Glass Gender and Sexuality Alliance said in an interview that the only place they can get menstrual products in their school is at the nurse’s office. Lobb said he timed the walk to the nurse’s office from the furthest corner of the school at 6 minutes — a trek that’s not feasible for many students between classes or in an emergency.
The superintendent said following public comment that the lack of menstrual supplies in school bathrooms is a known issue that’s being remedied.
During a break between the public comment period and the rest of the meeting, the alliance students seemed optimistic about the discussion about the It Gets Better Project grant slated for later that night. After the board rejected Dunbar’s volleyball grant and didn’t resolve anything about how to fund their projects, the students were visibly disappointed.
But support and encouragement they’ve seen from the Lynchburg community is motivating the club to keep advocating for its 15 members and the rest of the students at E.C. Glass, they said.
“As a trans individual, it’s hard enough to live,” Aspen Lewis, a student at E. C. Glass, said in an interview. “But knowing there are people who are actively advocating [for us] and that our community hears us and sees us is incredibly overwhelming and heartwarming.”
“From here, it doesn’t really matter what [the board] decides and what they do,” said Jacquelyn Wilkins, a teacher who advises the alliance. “What matters is that the kids know that they’re loved and they’re supported. And we will find a way to do what they need and to get what they need.”