For the first time in almost five years, Athens High School will have a Gay-Straight Alliance Club — all because of one student’s determination to make a change.
Athens High School senior Pawel Parkinson, who is gay, decided to restart the club to promote an atmosphere of tolerance within the school and to provide a safe and comfortable place for students to talk about personal issues.
“I wanted it to be an open place where we could all hang out and people could just be themselves,” Parkinson said.
Athens High School Principal Mike Meek said he is eager to see the club return. The club’s informal interaction could be beneficial for students who don’t feel comfortable seeking help from adults on certain issues, he said.
“Any club that’ll have discussion for students who feel like they are being picked on is a good thing,” Meek said.
Parkinson said his desire to re-establish the club stemmed from his own experiences with bullying. In grade school, he said he often endured name-calling and taunting from peers, prompting him to miss school.
“I guess I didn’t have a lot of friends and really wasn’t confident,” he said. “People would call me gay, and I actually thought of suicide.”
But when he moved to Athens from St. Louis in 2008, he experienced a change for the better.
“When I moved here, it was different,” Parkinson said. “I told myself, ‘It’s not going to be the same as it was.’ I just moved on, and I decided that I don’t want other people to go through what I went through.”
Though he feels accepted in Athens, Parkinson said bullying remains a problem at the school. The club will be a way for students to show support for their peers and to take a stand against intolerance, he said.
“(When I was bullied), I didn’t step up and just let it happen,” he said. “I want people to know it gets better. One person standing up can stop a million people.”
Though modern society is becoming more open to different sexual orientations, it is especially important for young students to know they have a place to turn, said Amy Coombs, cofounder of the Athens-area chapter of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays.
“There’s troubles among all teens, but having a different sexual orientation makes it worse,” she said. “It remains difficult to come out in middle school and high school. It is much safer to come out in college when you have something like the LGBT Center.”
The club is open to all students, and Parkinson said peers have already expressed interest in attending the club’s first meeting next week. Although he will graduate next year, Parkinson said he expects the club to grow in years to come.
“There’s always people in Athens scared to come out,” he said. “If we have this club, they’ll be more secure. Whether they’re gay, straight, bisexual, transgender, big or skinny, I want people to be OK with being who they are.”
kg278810@ohiou.edu
