A gay high school student feels that his Mississauga French Catholic school is trying to silence him after posters featuring a Harvey Milk quote were rejected.

The words from Milk (the openly gay San Francisco city supervisor assassinated in 1978) — “All young people, regardless of sexual orientation or identity, deserve a safe and supportive environment in which to achieve their full potential” — were not allowed on posters student Christopher Karas wanted to put up for a gay-straight alliance group in November.

According to Karas, the vice-principal at École Secondaire Catholique Sainte-Famille asked that “sexual orientation” be changed to “self expression” to be inclusive of non-LGBT students.

In an email, vice-principal Vicki Marcotte, the teacher representative for the group, told Karas she wouldn’t print the posters because the Milk quote was “tendentious.” She has also said that other students leading the group disagreed with including it.

Karas, who is gay, defiantly put the posters up anyway. They were ripped down the next day, he said.

He has now gone public with his story because, he claims, the school is trying to rid the little group of anything queer.

“The school board has been doing everything they can to oppress my group,” he said.

The group is not officially called a gay-straight alliance, but is known as Porte Ouvertes, or Open Doors. Students chose the name to be inclusive of all 20 members, only a few of whom identify as queer.

“Some still aren’t out to their family and friends. It’s really about creating a safe space at school for everyone,” said Karas, the group’s only publicly out member.

Karas pushed to create the group in the wake of Bill 13, the Accepting Schools Act, which made it illegal for schools to reject applications for gay-straight alliances.

Karas made a bid for a Bill 13 group in March 2013. The first meeting was held in September. Since then about 20 students have met once a month to discuss sexuality along with everyday teen issues — parents, dating, stress and depression.

“The group isn’t only to talk about gays, but it’s also the problems people have going on through school, with family,” said Davina Smith, another student founder of the group.

Marcotte, as teacher rep, has a say in the group’s functioning and listens as students discuss their personal issues, including sexuality.

“I don’t feel comfortable having a teacher sitting in on our conversation. I might like to have a social worker sit in, but I don’t want a school administrator who has the power to put some of us in suspensions,” Karas said.

The decision to reject the Milk posters came from the students who lead the group. They did not all agree on using the Milk quote because it singled out an LGBT leader, which may not be inclusive to everyone in the group, Karas said.

When Karas went to Marcotte about the issue, she said she didn’t want to print the poster because the quote was “tendentious” and the group wanted something more open.

Marcotte declined an interview with the Star when reached at the school Tuesday. However, she has told Xtra’s Andrea Houston that the decision to block the posters came from the group’s student leaders.

“The posters he submitted weren’t open enough for everybody,” Marcotte told Xtra. “There’s five students. It’s not just Christopher . . . everybody has a vote. They decided it wasn’t inclusive enough of everybody.”

With his own graduation just six months away, Karas is worried the group could fall apart once he heads to higher education.

“I asked to have democratic elections within the group to create positions of power so the group members could carry on the group every year, and that was turned down. The idea wasn’t even discussed. They said no, we can’t do that,” he said.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

The school board issued a statement Tuesday calling the Milk poster debacle a “misunderstanding.”

“If the members of the Portes Ouvertes committee agree on a promotional design that includes a Harvey Milk quote, then … the CSDCCS will not interfere in it being published and displayed in the school,” said Mikale-Andrée Joly, a spokesperson for the Catholic Central South District School Board.

She added that the board is aware of its role under the Accepting Schools Act, which requires all Ontario schools — public or Catholic — to allow GSAs.

But the school board’s statement hasn’t changed much for Karas. He is now considering legal action and plans to file a human rights complaint against the school, which he feels has tried to shut him up ever since his group started in September.

“They think their religion is more important than my human rights and other students’ human rights,” Karas said.

It’s a battle with which Jeremy Dias is all too familiar.

Nearly 10 years ago Dias won a lawsuit against his Sault Ste.-Marie, Ont., high school, where students and administrators were found to have discriminated against him after he came out.

“Chris is literally doing what I did a decade ago,” said Dias, 30.

Dias used the money he earned in the lawsuit to start Jer’s Vision, a charity that fights systemic homophobia in schools.

Dias is now working with Karas to start a training program to teach 100 LGBT students how to start their own GSAs. The week-long training program is expected to be held next May.

Even precocious leaders like Karas may not know much about the AIDS movement or the exclusion of queer women from the LGBT community, Dias said, which is why training is necessary.

“The only answer is an investment in training and education,” he said.

Still, Dias said, it was “sad” that students like Karas are the ones fighting to start the GSAs rather than teachers and administrators.

“You have this student who wants his school to be safer, and instead of being encouraged … he’s being bullied and put down by his educators, and that’s shameful,” Dias said. “Most people get fired from their job for that.”