Virginia Beach city schools have postponed a gay-pride assembly scheduled at Cox High School today following a last-minute complaint by a recently-elected city school board member.

The Virginian-Pilot reports that in-coming board member Victoria Manning emailed the school board chair on Saturday after reading a story in the paper about the planned assembly. Manning said the event would set a negative precedent and also noted "this is a controversial subject and I do not believe it is appropriate to hold a gay pride event during instructional time."

She added "I fully support the gay club holding meetings after school but not during instructional time."

The Gay-Straight Alliance at Cox planned the optional event in response to a bullying situation at the start of the school year.

Virginia Beach city public schools spokeswoman Eileen Cox told CBN News that the school division has postponed the assembly and explained that scheduling the event during the school day was a "mistake." Cox said that student-led meetings to raise awareness about their organization or issue should be scheduled after school to avoid losing instructional time.

Michael Berlucchi, the president of Hampton Roads Pride, was scheduled to speak at the assembly, along with a student panel. The organization tweeted Sunday that postponing the event "further marginalizes already vulnerable LGBT students."

Cox said that the decision to postpone "was made in an effort to be more inclusive of all groups and students, not to marginalize any particular student, group or organization." She said that school administrators will meet with student organizers to discuss the matter and to "apologize for the error."

Gay-straight alliance clubs are growing in size and scope in middle and high schools across the country. The Genders and Sexualities Alliance Network says it oversees more than 4,000 clubs across the country. The network began in 1998 "to empower youth activists to start GSA clubs to fight homophobia and transphobia in schools."