Gay Slurs Chanted at Football Game; School Under Fire

Home video posted on YouTube.com shows dozens of students from North High School chanting, "Powder blue," followed by a slur against gay people, to the opposing team Thursday night.

Former North High student Heather Ike took the video. "I sat there for a little bit thinking it would stop, and it happened again, and it happened three times," Ike said, adding that she left the game after a few minutes, disgusted.

The video comes after national headlines about gay teens committing suicide because they were bullied. This video shows what appears to be acceptance of gay bullying.

"For her to catch it in the act is a major thing, because then you can actually see it, you know, it's not just hearsay," said a friend of Ike's, Roger Thomas. Thomas has created an anti-gay bullying Facebook page in response to the video.

"I wasn't surprised. It's another incidence of hate speech," said Jan Cline, executive director of the Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender Community Center of Greater Cleveland.

North High School principal Jennifer Chauby said she and the assistant principals did stop the chanting. "We did put a stop to it as soon as we heard them chanting it, and it's totally unacceptable and they know we don't condone that type of behavior," Chauby said.

Chauby has identified some of the students in this video, but she said there were too many people involved to suspend them all. Instead, she's going to talk to the school.

"I do announcements all the time on the [public address system], and I always, we always talk to the kids about appropriate behavior and what's expected of our students," Chauby said, adding students started this derogatory chant several years ago, but she has not heard it for more than a year, until Thursday.

"It's got to stop," Cline said.