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This Idaho School Launched A Gay-Straight Alliance—And Kept It A Secret

Principal Mary Jensen was worried about unsupportive parents.

An Idaho school created a gay-straight alliance for its middle and high school students that was meant to stay hidden from parents.

The club was formed by Forrest M. Bird Charter School principal Mary Jensen, who was caught talking about wanting to keep the group secret in an audio recording.

The recording was eventually obtained by the Christian legal group Liberty Counsel who has vowed to take action against the school "to prevent irreparable harm to... the parents of... children whom the school is recruiting in the absence of their parents' knowledge."

When confronted by the conservative nonprofit, Jensen admitted that the club was secret, a fact Liberty Counsel chairman Mat Staver called "shocking."

"This is the first where we have seen a principal take a lead to start a gay club and hide it from the parents, and start activism," he said. "The law in terms of the club itself, Equal Access, requires that all clubs are treated equally."

Staver added that school employees had also facilitated meet-ups with LGBT students at a local library under the supervision of supportive third parties.

In the recording, Jensen said that she and the school wanted to be progressive, but didn't want the club to be too "in-your-face" so that parents wouldn't stop their children from joining.

She went on to say that the school was going to keep the alliance on the down low because there were kids who needed it but weren't ready to be totally open yet.

The Liberty Counsel's main legal strategy in this case is to say that the Equal Access Act is meant to regulate student clubs and that they can only exist if they're "curricular."

"Schools may not play games with what is 'curricular/non-curricular... Whatever arguments the school may raise about combating bullying and support, these are insufficient to bring the GSA into curricular status," the group wrote.

Jensen later confirmed that the GSA was created by staff over the course of several months and that students were hand-picked and recruited for the organization. She added that the school hoped to host yearly events with the community to promote LGBT equality.

h/t: CBN

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