The “safe space” room at E.C. Glass High School in Lynchburg would have sound machines and headphones so students could block out noise while they waited out a panic attack. It would offer soft furniture and sensory devices for anxious students to hug or touch. It might even feature a punching bag in the corner, for students who need to express their frustration after an encounter with a bully.
But right now, the quiet room, which would be modeled after similar spaces at other schools in Lynchburg, isn’t happening.
Students from the Gender and Sexuality Alliance at E.C. Glass High School won a $10,000 grant to create the room. The money would also go toward providing free menstrual products and funding club activities.
But last month, the Lynchburg School Board rejected the money because of the organization offering it: the It Gets Better Project, a nonprofit that supports networking and support for young people in the LGBTQ+ community.
In a discussion that lasted more than 90 minutes over two meetings, it became clear that a majority of school board members supported refusing the money. But there wasn’t a clear consensus on how else to fund the student group projects that the board members agreed were worthy causes.
Anthony Andrews, a board member who supported the grant, criticized the body’s actions after the vote to reject the funding.
“We’re going to create a safe space, but are we going to take into consideration the students’ voices … with no plan?” Andrews said, adding later: “We’re operating just because of how we feel instead of pausing and really having a plan in place.”
Discussion of how to fund the proposed projects now that the grant has been turned down is slated to continue at Tuesday’s school board meeting.
The 50 States, 50 Grants, 5,000 Voices grant program from the It Gets Better Project selects at least one middle or high school in each state to receive $10,000 to fund projects to promote inclusivity and community. This year’s winners, including E.C. Glass, were announced in August.
In Lynchburg, all grants to schools for more than $5,000 must be approved by the school board. E.C. Glass Principal Dani Rule presented the details of the award at an October board work session, where he outlined the three components planned for the grant funding. 
Alongside the creation of the safe room, the Gender and Sexuality Alliance would purchase and stock menstrual product dispensers in restrooms around the school, so students wouldn’t have to visit the nurse’s office if they need the products. Funds also would go toward general alliance activities, including buying T-shirts and flags, planning field trips and hosting an intra-club party at Glass.
The school has had a Gender and Sexuality Alliance since 2005, Rule said, though it’s not listed among the more than 30 clubs on the high school’s website.
The students selected the quiet room as one of its projects, Rule said, because of the higher rate of bullying the LGBTQ+ community experiences. But he emphasized that the room would be open to all students.
“The students of the E.C. Glass GSA selected projects [that] not only benefit themselves as a club but also build stronger mental health supports, meet physical needs and build a stronger sense of community at E.C. Glass,” Rule explained at the October meeting.
Two faculty advisors for the club answered questions from the board about the need for the quiet room. Some students with individualized education plans, especially those on the autism spectrum, have access to a quiet space as part of their education plan. But there’s no set space for that at E.C. Glass, so students get shuffled around to the closest empty classroom to take 5- or 10-minute breaks when needed, they said.
Several school board members immediately cited reservations about the granting organization.
The It Gets Better Project was started in 2010 by sex columnist and LGBTQ+ advocate Dan Savage and his husband Terry Miller, with a goal of preventing LGBTQ+ youth suicide by sharing uplifting video messages from adults of various sexual orientations. President Barack Obama even provided a video for the project during his presidency.
Savage has been a polarizing figure at times due to his liberal stance and his coordination of an unrelated pornography festival. But he and Miller are no longer on the nonprofit’s staff or board of directors.
Most of the school board’s reservations about the grant were due to Savage’s history. Board member Farid Jalil said it’s hard to separate the organization from its founder.
“I don’t like any association with pornography with our school systems,” he said.
School board liked ‘quiet room’ plan, but was skeptical of pro-LGBTQ+ sponsor
After the discussion at the October work session, the grant was back on the agenda for a vote on Nov. 14.
Several students spoke during that meeting, explaining how they’d benefit from a quiet room or free access to menstrual products at school.
Percy Phillips, a sophomore at E.C. Glass and a member of the Gender and Sexuality Alliance, said that they have anxiety and could use a quiet space to calm down. Without it, their only option is to seek refuge in the nurse’s office, or to suffer through it in the classroom and risk distracting other students. Though Percy said they’re part of the queer community, the quiet room, along with the other grant projects, wouldn’t be “just for the queer kids.”
“It’s for all of them,” Percy said. “It’s to make sure kids feel more welcomed and more comfortable no matter what background they come from or how they identify or who they love.”
Only one parent or guardian of an E.C. Glass student spoke during public comment, sharing concerns that accepting the grant would support the “LGBTQ agenda” in schools, which he said “grooms” children “into an evil and wicked lifestyle.”
The school board typically only allots 30 minutes for public comment but extended that period at the November meeting to ensure that students who had signed up to speak could do so.
Superintendent Crystal Edwards recommended the board approve the grant, citing the success of other quiet rooms in the school division, including one at each of three middle schools. And all board members agreed that setting up the room was a worthy cause. But most objected either to the source of the funding, or to the idea that the quiet room would be tied to the It Gets Better Project.
The It Gets Better Project asks schools to acknowledge the nonprofit if they choose to publicize their projects, but it doesn’t require any particular signage to be displayed. Gender and Sexuality Alliance members had decided to recognize the funding with a small sign on the door to the quiet room, about the size of a sheet of paper.
Some school board members seemed to worry that accepting the grant money would serve as an endorsement of an organization that provides information about gender and sexuality to young people.
Christian DePaul and Randall Trost were the most vocal in their reservations about the source of the funding, with Trost saying that the school should be a neutral place, not one that pushes an agenda or ideology. And member Letitia Lowery said she had researched the organization and was concerned that students using the safe room would need to watch videos on “the [LGBTQ+] lifestyle, on the ideology of this,” although that wasn’t outlined in the plan for the grant money. Several attendees called out from the crowd to try to correct her. 
Justin Tindall, senior director of programs and operations for the It Gets Better Project, said in an interview that the grant does not require students to watch any It Gets Better videos. The nonprofit’s website does offer a video series called “Queer Sex Ed,” featuring conversations between young people and sexual educators. But Tindall said the organization doesn’t direct schools to follow any sort of curriculum.
“In general, all our work is about inviting people to share their perspectives and stories,” he said.
Andrews warned his fellow board members of the impact on students if the funding was rejected. “If we vote no on this, it sends the message that we don’t trust the students, we don’t trust the teachers that have been advocating for this room.”
He said that message would be similar to the one sent by the board’s recent decision to close several schools, which varied widely from what residents recommended during a lengthy consideration period.
The vote to approve the grant funding failed, with only two members — Andrews and Sharon Carter — of the nine-member appointed board voting to accept the grant.
Vice Chair Martin Day then proposed that the board authorize the superintendent to find $10,000 within the division budget to provide for the same room and menstrual products outlined in the grant plan.
Members volleyed options for funding the space; some suggested finding local donors, while board chair Atul Gupta volunteered to donate the $10,000 himself.
The motion directing the division to fund the projects passed but was quickly walked back because it wasn’t clear what information, if any, Edwards would have to present to the board for approval of the spending.
Further discussion of the grant was tabled until Tuesday’s meeting.
Day said in a phone interview last week that the board is in agreement on its desire to create a room like the one proposed by the Gender and Sexuality Alliance students. He said the board is seeking legal advice about whether it would be a conflict of interest for school board members to contribute funds for the project.
Day explained that the budget sheet the board reviewed for the grant projects showed that furnishing the quiet room would cost about $1,700 out of the full $10,000. “If that’s the amount we’re talking about, almost a single individual could come up with that much,” Day said.
“Regardless of anyone’s position on the issue, nobody’s happy with the amount of discord and strong feelings this has generated,” Day said. “It’s uncomfortable for everyone no matter how you feel about particular decisions the board is facing.”
Lynchburg City Schools spokesperson Austin Journey said no one in the administration would be available to comment before this week’s meeting. Gender and Sexuality Alliance club advisors did not respond to emails requesting an interview, and club members didn’t respond to an email sent to an address listed on the alliance’s Facebook page.
Members of the school board received death threats via email on Friday, Journey said, following a Washington Post column detailing the school board’s rejection of the grant funding. The Lynchburg Police Department is investigating those threats.
The rejection also got some attention at a city council meeting in late November, when council member Jeff Helgeson praised the school board for listening to parents and rejecting the grant. “They voted 7 to 2 to not have those silly policies, to not have those grants, but to actually look at what we can do to actually keep children safe,” he said. “Obviously one side doesn’t like it … the side that thinks children should be preyed upon.”
And council member Marty Misjuns, who was censured that same night for his behavior on the council, submitted a letter for the record praising the board “for their courage to deny this predatory organization access to innocent school children.”
Both Misjuns and Helgeson are part of the far-right faction on the council.
Lynchburg is only second school board to reject It Gets Better grant
The 50 States, 50 Grants, 5,000 Voices grant program launched in 2021, with It Gets Better Project retail partners American Eagle and Aerie soliciting donations at the register during Pride season. The goal of the grant program, Tindall said, is for schools to receive a substantial sum that they can put toward their unique needs. Projects have ranged from installing murals and art exhibitions to building community gardens to creating gender-inclusive bathrooms.
Salem High School won for Virginia in the inaugural year of the grant program. The money went toward the school’s mentorship program, which fosters student clubs, pays for student passes to educational sites such as the Virginia Museum of Transportation and the Mill Mountain Zoo, and buys supplies for the school’s free clothing closet.That school’s Gender and Sexuality Alliance has been so successful that the It Gets Better Project gave it a second $10,000 grant toward its projects.
The It Gets Better Project has handed out about 125 grants for $10,000 each over the last two years. Tindall said some students and teachers who have won grants have received backlash from local community groups, but Lynchburg is only the second school division to reject the award.
The first was a school district just north of Salt Lake City, Utah, where the school board rejected the 2022 award to one of its high schools. The It Gets Better Project worked with a local organization that agreed to receive the funds and use the money to serve the school’s community, Tindall said.
“The victims of this moment are those students,” Tindall said. “Not just because they’ve been denied this grant opportunity, but because the message this entire conversation is going to send them, that their needs are not real, that their self-advocacy is misplaced.”
The board will continue discussion of the grant funding tonight near the end of the meeting during “unfinished business.”
