Crescenta Valley High students host ‘Chain of Kindness’ as part of effort to support LGBT youth
Crescenta Valley High School Gay Straight Alliance allies wrote messages on paper strips during lunch hour at the La Crescenta school on Tuesday, November 3, 2015. The strips of paper will be rolled into a circle like links and made into a chain.
Several Crescenta Valley High School students invited their peers to create a “Chain of Kindness” Tuesday afternoon during the school’s “Ally Week,” which aimed to have the entire student body offer support for students who are in the LGBT community.
As part of the chain event, students wrote supportive messages on colorful paper strips that students planned to chain together and hang in the school’s hallways later in the week.
One message read, “Love is not limited.” Another proclaimed, “Don’t change for anybody. You are perfect.”
When the Crescenta Valley High football team goes up against Arcadia tonight, players are slated to wear rainbow stickers on their helmets, while band members and cheerleaders will wear rainbow ribbons pinned on their uniforms. All participation in tonight’s event is voluntary, school officials said.
“This is all about just creating a safe place for the students,” said 16-year-old junior Jesse Sommers. “Even my extremely conservative friends, they’re happy that this is happening even though they may disagree with the movement.”
Sommers is one of about 80 students who belong to the school’s Gay Straight Alliance Club.
The “Ally Week” the club organized, in partnership with the school’s student body government, has been months in the making.
Late last week, students who work on the school’s newspaper dedicated their latest issue to the cause, as well.
“It’s definitely a schoolwide effort,” said teacher Alicia Harris, a history teacher and co-adviser to the club.
Fellow teacher and club co-adviser, David Platt, 46, said the week of events would have been “unheard of” when he was in high school about 30 years ago.
“I’m overwhelmed for our students. I’m so thankful,” he said.
Claire Herr, a 17-year old Crescenta Valley High senior and president of the Gay Straight Alliance Club, said many teachers decorated their classrooms in rainbow colors, and students were just as supportive.
“We live in a semiconservative neighborhood, so I wasn’t expecting so much love. It just shows students that they are loved, and they are safe,” she said. “It’s important because a lot of people don’t get support at home, so they could come here and get support here.”
Herr added that homeless youth sometimes identify as LGBT, so Crescenta Valley students were also holding a clothing drive this week, and they plan to deliver clothes to the Los Angeles LGBT Center.
The Gay Straight Alliance Club has already made an impact locally.
Last school year, after Crescenta Valley club members visited Rosemont Middle School, the seventh- and eighth-graders created their own Gay Straight Alliance Club, which is operating for the first time this school year with the name “The Rainbow Gems.”
While several teens acknowledged they are not living in a perfect world, Herr said she was pleased with the outcome of “Ally Week,” and its goal of creating an inclusive environment.
“There’s a lot of hate out there, but we really want to make this a safe place and make people know that they are loved no matter what,” Herr said.
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Kelly Corrigan, kelly.corrigan@latimes.com
Twitter: @kellymcorrigan