Students from the Mealy Mountain Collegiate in Happy Valley-Goose Bay gathered in the school’s parking lot on May 18 for a kick-off event held in recognition of the first ever Gay-Straight Alliance that is planned to start-up in participating schools across the province next fall.
The event was organized in partnership with the Labrador School Board and outside agencies including Labrador Grenfell Health. The hour long event kicked off with music, food, fun and activities. The finale ended with upwards to 300 students dressed in brightly colored t-shirts who gathered to form a giant rainbow in front of the school as a visual message of support.
Teacher Nick Gibbs and Guidance Councillor Deanna Miles both coordinated the May 18 event, “The purpose of the event was to come up with a way of gathering the entire school and bringing the attention to an issue that I think a lot of people know about – student LGBTQ – Lesbians, Gay, Bi-Sexual, Trans-gender and questioning,” said Mr. Gibbs. “Also, we tried to promote that we are going to be starting a GSA(Gay Straight Alliance) at our school…so we thought this was a pretty good way to really make it known to students that this is happening at our school, it’s a safe space for anybody and try to encourage them to participate next fall.”
Gibbs says regardless of the amount of students who are in a school, it is the impact of the homophobic bullying is the most pressing issue.
Read more in Monday's Labradorian
