Evan Young is the valedictorian of his graduating class at Twin Peaks Charter School in Boulder, Colorado. The school reviewed his planned speech and discovered that Evan intended to reveal that he is gay. He was not allowed to be the graduation speaker. His principal explained to other students that Evan has “bad character.” Evan had planned to talk about respect and tolerance for others.

 

Bruce Baker has written on several occasions (see here, for example) that students abandon their civil rights when they enroll in a charter school. If their actions are challenged over their disciplinary policies, they assert that they are not “state actors,” but private corporations that make their own rules.

 

Thus, they can act in ways that public schools could not, writing their own rules about admission, discipline, suspension, and due process rights (or the lack thereof) for students.

 

I was thinking of Frank Bruni of the Néw York Times when I read this story. Bruni is openly gay and has written several columns in the New York Times on gay-related issues. He apparently is also a supporter of charter schools, which are free of unions and state regulations. I hope he reads this story.