Jackson grad campaigning for stronger Safe Schools Act

Morgan Keenan seemed the stereotypical all-American boy.

But Keenan was living a double life. It would crash with an uncomfortable question.

His mother asked if he was gay. He decided to tell the truth.

"I never thought I would come out to her," Keenan said.

It didn't go well. He said his parents didn't want him to live "that lifestyle" around them. They moved on to another job opportunity and left him to finish out his schooling in Jackson, Keenan said. He said he stayed at the home of his best friend's parents, until they found out Keenan was gay.

A decade later, Keenan is helping to lead a campaign he believes will make Missouri schools safer for all students, including gays and lesbians.

While Keenan said he found pockets of support at Jackson High School, he feared the repercussions of coming out to his peers.

"I was too scared that I would be rejected, like what happened at home," he said.

Keenan had seen the consequences of acknowledgment when a friend came out in high school.

"It was torture," Keenan recalled. "She was called 'lesbian' and 'dyke.' My senior year she was my prom date, and the reason I took her is because I couldn't take who I wanted."

Now the 2002 Jackson High School graduate is coordinator for the Missouri Safe Schools Coalition, which includes PROMO, Missouri's only statewide lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender advocacy organization. The coalition is made up of some 40 groups statewide, committed to passage of a stronger Missouri Safe Schools Act.

The law, updated in 2006, requires schools to create a policy addressing bullying. But coalition members say the act is vague, void of guidelines and ultimately leaves students vulnerable.

The Missouri Safe Schools Coalition wants the law to specifically list the social categories to be protected from bullying and discrimination, language supported in bills sponsored by state Rep. Sara Lampe, D-Springfield. Those actual or perceived characteristics would include sexual orientation and gender identity. But Keenan said the proposal goes well beyond protections for gay and lesbian students, covering race, religion, gender, ancestry, disability, among various categories.

PROMO says that states with anti-bullying laws that specify protected classes report lower rates of bullying in schools. The organization points to a study from The Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, or GLSEN, titled "From Teasing to Torment," that shows 48 percent of Missouri high school students have reported bullying, name calling and harassment to be somewhat or very serious problems at their school, compared to the national average of 36 percent. The report found 27 percent of surveyed students reported being bullied because of perceived or actual sexual orientation, 18 percent due to disability and 11 percent because of religious reasons.

Audit of policies

A 2008 audit of the Safe School Initiative from Missouri State Auditor Susan Montee identified significant weaknesses in school districts' safe schools policies procedures and programs. "There are insufficient violence prevention programs, anti-bullying policies, safety procedures and programs," as well as inaccurate incident data, the audit found.

Efforts to update the Safe Schools Act have failed in recent years, driven by concerns of lawmakers and religious organizations that the protections only serve the "homosexual agenda." In an earlier defeat of a Safe Schools amendment, the Missouri Family Policy Council hailed the vote as a rejection of "efforts to promote the homosexual lifestyle in Missouri schools." "Schools would have been required to adopt policies discouraging such bullying" based on "so-called sexual orientation."

Other opponents say the current law, which calls for equal treatment of all students, carries the appropriate message in promulgating anti-bullying policies.

Financial constraints, not social concerns, could prove the ultimate challenge to the Safe Schools proposal. Confronting a half-billion-dollar or better budget shortfall, the Missouri Legislature will have its hands full.

Keenan said he's pushing the legislative update hard because he doesn't want any more young people to face the fears and alienation he and others faced in school. He said he wants to start a dialogue in rural areas of the state like Southeast Missouri, places Keenan believes are often left out of policy debate. Despite the challenges ahead, Keenan said the Safe Schools issue won't fail for lack of communication.

"There definitely is going to be lot of conversation about this bill," he said.

mkittle@semissourian.com

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