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.
The Clovis School Board voted unanimously Tuesday night to end all extracurricular clubs from meeting during school hours. The American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico says the decision comes as a way to stop a Gay-Straight Alliance from forming at Clovis High School.
Clovis Municipal Schools Superintendent Terry Myers said that the decision had nothing to do with students wanting to form a gay-straight alliance at Clovis High School. She also said that if the group meets the requirements for an extracurricular club it will be allowed to form at Clovis High School.
Noncurricular clubs can still meet before or after school, something that those who want to form a gay-straight alliance say will affect how the club is viewed.
“I realize [the superintendent] said we would be allowed to meet after school … but I’m not sure it will get that same respect as curricular clubs or even if it will be acknowledged as a club at school,” Gay-Straight Alliance organizer and Clovis High School student Steven De Los Santos told KOB news.
According to the Clovis News Journal, students and the ACLU-NM were confused by the decision. Previously, they believed that the school board would end all extracurricular clubs in the school. If that happened, the ACLU-NM said they would sue the district.
School officials say that it does not have to do with the formation of the gay-straight alliance. Federal law requires schools to allow clubs like a gay-straight alliance to form — unless the school disbands all other extracurricular clubs such as the chess club or the glee club.
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.
