Plans for GLBT High School in ChiTown Nixed

From the SunTimes.com:

Mayor Daley on Thursday put the brakes on the Chicago Board of Education’s controversial plan to open the city’s first high school serving gay and lesbian students.

One day after his handpicked school board put off a vote on the School for Social Justice Pride Campus, Daley explained why — by expressing his misgivings.

“You have to look at whether or not you isolate and segregate children. A holistic approach has always been to have children of all different backgrounds– in schools. When you start isolating children and you say, ‘Only 50 percent here, 40 percent here’ — same thing we went through with the disabled — then you want to do that when they’re adults,” Daley said.

“It’s controversial. Some people are for it. Some are against it– The Board of Education has to make the decision whether it’s good for isolating children. I don’t know– I’m just saying that’s one of the problems– You start identifying them.”

Daley insisted he was not behind the board’s decision to put off a final vote on Social Justice High until Nov. 19. The school would serve a 50/50 population of gay and straight students.

But he said, “It’s something that the Board of Education has to work out and really understand what it’s trying to do.”

Schools CEO Arne Duncan had hoped to open the school in the fall of 2010 to offer parents and students more choices and a feeling of safety. He has argued that gay and lesbian students have higher drop-out rates because they feel ostracized