Why we need school choice

Besides the fact that government schools do an inferior job of educating, and are a major source of racial segregation, they trap kids in concrete boxes behind fences where hey are bored to death, fed trash and bullied

No parent, even a homophobic one, would choose to send a kid to a school where she is beaten and no teacher does anything about it

Even parents don't want to know a child is gay would send the kid to an arts or music or science etc school where hey thought the would fit in and be safe

On Wednesday, May 9, 2012, 

Gay teen's suicide in Utah highlights youth bullying risks

By Jennifer Dobner

SALT LAKE CITY | Mon May 7, 2012 7:45pm EDT

(Reuters) - Gay rights activists in Utah are calling for action to halt bullying in the conservative state after the suicide of a small-town gay Mormon teenager who friends and activists said was tormented at school because of his sexual orientation.

Utah has the nation's 12th highest rate of youth suicide, according to a 2009 report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. On average, two teens a day are treated in Utah emergency rooms after suicide attempts, state health department data from 2008 to 2010 showed.

The recent teen suicide in the small town of Mountain Green has roiled Utah's gay community and drawn national media attention mostly because of its timing - the suicide came just as gay rights activists were trying to help youth in the area overcome bullying so as to prevent such tragedies.

An obituary said Jack Denton Reese, 17, died April 22, and the Morgan County sheriff's office confirmed it responded to the suicide of a juvenile at his mother's home in their town, about 40 miles north of Salt Lake City.

Alex Smith, who described himself as Reese's boyfriend, said the teen suffered severe physical and verbal bullying by classmates. Smith shared Reese's story during an April 23 panel discussion of gay bullying in nearby Ogden, saying they had discussed the problem but Reese had not sought help.

"I want to be a voice for people that can't speak, or who are afraid to speak," said Smith, who like Reese was raised as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Utah, where about 60 percent of the population is Mormon.

"I want to be that voice that says, you know, it's OK to be gay," said Smith, who said he met Reese last autumn at the high school they attended.

At the time he spoke out, Smith said he did not know that Reese had already taken his life. He said Reese complained of being shoved around and subjected to anti-gay slurs.

It is not clear how many of Utah's youth suicides occur in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community because there is no mechanism for collecting the data, according to Valerie Larabee, executive director of the Utah Pride Center.

"What we know is that in line with national statistics, LGBT youth are at already at an increased risk for suicide and attempted suicide," she said.

In another high-profile suicide involving a gay youth, an 18-year-old Rutgers student, Tyler Clementi, committed suicide in 2010 by jumping off the George Washington Bridge that connects New Jersey to New York, in a case that drew national attention to issues of gay-bashing and bullying.

Through an attorney, Reese's parents declined comment on the circumstances of their son's death, saying they considered it a private family matter.

"The death of their son is tragic and they are still going through the grieving process," the lawyer's statement said.

PUSH FOR CHANGE

Reese's death has jump-started a push for change by activists who had already been working to combat

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