Discrimination In Schools
School should be a place that provides all students with a safe considerate environment, where every individual is free to prosper and feel safe fully expressing themselves. However, high schools around the world have harnessed an organization that contradicts ideas of acceptance and benevolence. Fellowship of Christian Athletes, also known as FCA, is an international organization with a vision “to see the world transformed by Jesus Christ through the influence of coaches and athletes.” One of the main issues with the club is a declaration located in the Student Leadership Application. The text explains that the club believes that “God’s design for sexual intimacy is to be expressed only within the context of marriage, that God created man and woman to complement and complete each other. God instituted marriage between one man and one woman as the foundation of the family and the basic structure of human society. For this reason, we believe that marriage is exclusively the union of one man and one woman.” Many students expressed their concerns about the club's beliefs. We want to ensure that Roswell High School is as welcoming and safe as possible for all students, parents, and faculty.
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Virginia Rowlett, a graduate of Roswell High School, was a member of FCA. Virginia grew up in the Methodist church and was very involved in her church's youth group. Virginia started to attend FCA meetings during her freshman year of High School and decided to apply for a leadership position for her junior year. She officially became a student leader during her junior year and explained that “she absolutely loved it, loved the community that it gave [her].” Virginia said, “When I originally got involved in leadership in my junior year, you did not have to sign a contract. It was filling out more of an application that did not have the statement of faith in it. It was just information about you and your testimony and how you became involved in FCA.” During January of Virginia’s senior year, Don Wheeler, a representative of FCA for the region, first brought up implementing a new statement of faith. Virginia explained that Mr. Wheeler wanted to meet with some of the student leadership at a local church to discuss the future of FCA. Virginia was one of two representatives for Roswell that went to the meeting. “I thought that it was going to be a big room with other student representatives from other schools, but we walked in and it was just the two of us, Don Wheeler, his daughter, and then the other regional representative.” During the meeting, Don Wheeler presented the Statement of Faith to Virginia and the other student. During the meeting, Don explained that they were implementing the form and taking it to other schools. Anyone that wanted to be on student leadership was required to sign the form. Virginia read through the application and was concerned with the section that explained that marriage was only to be between a man and a woman. Virginia and the other student questioned this and asked about people who do not follow the marriage guidelines presented in the application. Virginia says that she “remembers Don’s exact words in response.'' She said that Mr. Wheeler responded by saying “we will love them but we will not tolerate them.” Virginia was appalled and chose to leave FCA after this event. Virginia went to Roswell High School’s principal, Robert Shaw, to try to end the club. Dr. Shaw explained that the school would be unable to do anything since FCA is an international organization. Virginia wanted to start her own club with one of her fellow peers. They created a club called Roswell United that “ would be accepting of others and would be a place where everyone, no matter their religion, could come and worship in Roswell High School.” The club was successful and saw many students attend the first meeting. No student should be put in an uncomfortable situation where an adult that they should be able to look up to, is instead expressing hurtful, discriminatory beliefs.
Along with a previous member of the club I spoke with multiple students that are members of the LGBTQ+ community. I sat down with Emma Manlapas who is a recent Roswell High School graduate. Emma explained that Roswell High School was not the most welcoming atmosphere for members of the LGBTQIA+ community. They explained that in some situations, “teachers would inject their ideas into the curriculum in addition to it already being biased.” They explained that they were really surprised when they found out that the FCA Student Leadership Application was openly hurtful and discriminatory because “I had always felt like school was somewhere where I had belonged. Although it was not a perfect space, it was my space.” When they first found out about the statement in the FCA Student Leadership Application they were shocked. They explained, “once I had time to process the statement I still in a state of shock because as a queer person you are aware that people are homophobic, it's just something that happens, but to see it stated so explicitly is a different thing altogether, it makes it less of an abstract concept.” When asked how people could make schools more inclusive, Emma explained that “There needs to be a better system for reporting misconduct.”
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In addition to Emma, I spoke with another Roswell High School graduate that is part of the LGBTQ+ community. She was willing to share her experiences but wanted to remain anonymous. Throughout her childhood, she was brought up around the Christian faith, but as she got older she started to believe that “the Christian faith is highly hypocritical, especially with how they react to the LGBTQ+ community.” During her junior year, she learned about the FCA Student Leadership Application when she heard her peers talking about it in one of her classes. She explained that the statement in the Student Leadership Application was sad and disappointing. When talking about how she felt about the application she explained that “during a time in your life like High School when you're trying to figure everything out and discover who you are, it’s disappointing to me that an organization that is supposed to be welcoming to others is this discriminatory.” She continued by saying that high school “is a really hard time regardless of if you have anything else going on in general. Your sexuality and race you can't change so it should not be something that you are stigmatized for.” Moving to a broader view of Roswell High School and the community as a whole she said, “I think that there have been too many issues with people, even teachers, and organizations making racist and homophobic comments. It is prevalent within the Roswell community and is overlooked all of the time.” Throughout both interviews, both people made many powerful points that stress why it is important for high school to be a space where people practice being understanding and compassionate. High school is a time for self-discovery and having organizations and teachers denounce students for things that they cannot change is damaging to students' development and overall unacceptable. For it to be an inclusive space, high schools need to stop endorsing and providing a meeting space for clubs such as FCA, that spread malicious beliefs that directly discriminate and alienate students.
So why is it crucial that the Roswell community comes together to combat injustice and unwarranted intolerance? It is essential because of the impact that discrimination can have on the mental health and development of students within the community. Protesting the actions of FCA is critical because of the impacts that the organization's teachings and actions have on the LGBTQ+ youth. According to the CDC, “a study of youth in grades 7-12 found that lesbian, gay, and bisexual youth were more than twice as likely to have attempted suicide as their heterosexual peers.” Having an international organization meeting on public school property only shows that the school board and high school administration have shown their lack of concern for the mental health and well being of a large population of students. By normalizing this catastrophic behavior many students are being taught that discrimination is not only reasonable but justifiable. As a community, you have the power to make a change. Use your voices to bring awareness to this issue. Inform your administration and school board that changes need to be made. High school should be a place where all students feel safe and cared for. Your voice is one of your most powerful devices, use it to unify, educate, and love.
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