Organizers of a school that was originally supposed to be gay-friendly have put the plan on hold. The Chicago school board had been scheduled to vote on the proposal Wednesday.
The concept for Social Justice Solidarity High School had gradually changed over the last month. Instead of only welcoming gay students, civic leaders convinced the planning team to broaden the scope to anyone who had been bullied. Wilfredo De Jesus was one of those civic leaders. He’s pastor of New Life Covenant Church on Chicago’s Northwest Side.
DE JESUS: I’m just stunned why after so many, you know, a month and a half of meetings, they’re going to pull out.
De Jesus says the planning team might have felt it was compromising its original vision of a school primarily for gay students. In a statement, the planning team doesn’t specify why it pulled the proposal. It says it plans to work on the concept for another year and hope to open the school in 2010.