I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
Clovis High School may end all non-curricular clubs rather than allow a gay-straight alliance to form at the eastern New Mexico high school, the American Civil Liberties Union in New Mexico claims. The school superintendent told the Albuquerque Journal that a vote Tuesday night on whether to disband all non-curricular clubs is unrelated to an attempt to form a gay-straight alliance at the school.
The Journal reported:
Under federal law, schools cannot stop such an alliance from forming unless they ban all other activities that aren’t directly tied to a class or other school curriculum. Athletics and other activities sanctioned by the New Mexico Activities Association would be exempt from such a ban.
The board’s vote will center on whether the district should continue its current policy of allowing any nondiscriminatory club, or whether it should adopt a new policy allowing only clubs related to school curriculum.
The ACLU-NM contends that the vote is directly related and says it believes the district should allow the clubs to continue to exist.
“Non-curricular activities are a vital part of any educational program and provide students with enriching and rewarding experiences,” ACLU of New Mexico Staff Attorney Alexandra Freedman Smith wrote in a letter to the Clovis School Board. “At Clovis High School, you have non-curricular service clubs, religious clubs, a chess club, and other similarly engaging groups. To simply discontinue these clubs would deprive all students of a rich and diverse set of activities to engage in outside of class. Eliminating these clubs would doubtlessly diminish the vibrancy of the high school community in Clovis.”
Gay-straight alliances are used to stop bullying and “stand up for safety and equality,” according to the national umbrella organization for gay-straight alliances.
There are 45 gay-straight alliances in high schools, universities and other youth groups across the state, according to the New Mexico Gay-Straight Alliance Network.
