PRINCETON — One of the students spearheading the newly formed Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) at Princeton High School read a statement to the school board during its regular meeting Wednesday and told about the resistance she was met with by administration when attempting to form the club six months ago.

In her speech, Lydia Brown, a high school junior, said it should not have taken this long for the club to be approved by administration.

She told about the many appeals she, and fellow students Emma Roden and Margarita Gomez, made to get approval for the club.

She said they met with Assistant Principal Jeff Ohlson three or four times and shared they had found a willing a sponsor, media specialist Renee Kozeal; created a mission statement; and put together a time line for creating the GSA — requirements needed to get a club approved.

But Brown said the students were told there was concern with school board approval and how the community would view this club.

When this happened, Brown said she called Illinois Safe Schools Alliance for support.

“I contacted the alliance, who in turn contacted Mr. (Andy) Berlinski and Mr. Ohlson in an email appealing for this club,” Brown said, adding it took two weeks for administration to reply to Rodrigo Anzures-Oyorzabal, who is the policy and advocacy manager for the Alliance.

Brown said there was no communication between administration and students during this period, so she, Gomez and Roden held an impromptu meeting with Ohlson to discuss the GSA.

“In this meeting, suddenly board approval, community outlook and hosting the club, in general, was not an issue,” she said, adding the issue at that point seemed to be that students hadn’t appeared to be serious about starting the club.

“Since I do not wish for there to be any discrepancies or illusions, we are very serious about this matter,” she said.

Brown said two weeks after that impromptu meeting with Ohlson, he called the students in for another meeting during school hours and told them approval by the school board had never been necessary, because protocol stated a club or organization only needed approval by Superintendent Kirk Haring.

“Why did it take us six months to unearth this protocol?” Brown questioned.

“Why was it that one week before the board meeting, at which I suggested I speak at, we were told we did not even need to attend?”

Brown said she prepared an essay for the board with three goals in mind: the first being so the board would give students unanimous approval for the GSA; the second being the board would see and understand why GSA is needed at PHS; and third, the board would see how the process of getting the GSA started had impacted their lives.

Brown said with a community that has a heavy history of suicide, she questions why it is that administration had been so unwilling to create an accepting environment for the group of students most at risk of suicide.

The PHS Gay-Straight Alliance held its first meeting on Tuesday, and more than 65 young people attended, according to Brown.

“All I ask now of Princeton’s Board of Education and administration is that we be given the respect and support we should have been given all along,” Brown said.

Following Brown’s speech, Haring, board members and Ohlson were given the opportunity to comment on the matter. Ohlson immediately offered no comment. Board member Gary Hanna was quick to point out the club had been approved and held its first meeting. But when asked about the resistance from administration, no direct comment was offered about the matter.

PHS board action from Wednesday

At Wednesday’s meeting, the Princeton High School Board approved the following:

• Kevin Alt as assistant softball coach; Kyle Arnet as volunteer baseball coach; Kevin Bauer, Jamie Ciesielski, Brad Snethen and Brianna Wedekind as volunteer softball coaches; Dave Moore as volunteer track coach; Gary Podobinski as custodian; and Daniel Sinclair as volunteer girls soccer coach.

• Recognized February students of the month, including Shea Dzurisin, Hayden Welte, Caleb Alter and Lukas Burger.

• Approved the school calendar for 2018-19.

• Approved the staff seniority list.