A straight
student says he was expelled Monday from West Linn High
School in Oregon for showing a student film, which he
had been assigned to make, titled BrokebackHigh. The film is a "gay love story" based on
themes from Brokeback Mountain but set in a
modern-day high school.
Brandon Flyte
said on his Web site Tuesday that the school is not calling
the dismissal an expulsion. He has been transferred to
nearby Clackamas Community College, where he will
spend the last two months of his senior year, but will
be allowed to walk with his high school class at
graduation and attend the prom as a guest, "depending on
behavior this spring related to West Linn High
School."
Flyte says that
before he showed his film to the English class in which
it had been assigned, he was required by the administration
to edit out a scene of the two lead male characters
snuggling together shirtless in bed. But then he also
showed the film to his marine biology class with the
disputed scene left in. "Apparently the administration
thought that this was a big enough violation to warrant an
expulsion," he said.
"One has to
wonder if any of this would've happened had the two
characters snuggling in my film been male and female," Flyte
says on his site. "We're led to believe that diversity
is encouraged in schools, but when a 17-year-old
straight kid makes a serious gay love story and is
expelled for it, it just begs the question of exactly what
kind of policy was the administration following? I recall
Tim Fields, one of the vice principals at my school,
having to think for at least a minute when asked by
the office lady, 'What should I put down for "reason
of withdrawal"?' If the basis of my expulsion is so
unclear to them, then surely the circumstances surrounding
it are extremely questionable, and the grounds on
which I was removed are both unfair and
unexplainable."
There has been
no response from school officials to Flyte's
allegations. (The Advocate)
