Inside the first year of the Alabama school where LGBTQ students are celebrated:
Even in the hours leading up to the dance, a gubernatorial candidate released a campaign ad questioning why there is a “transgender school” in Alabama - further fueling an election debate that has threatened Magic City’s hard-fought existence.
Magic City administrators said each of their 240 students had experienced either discrimination or the challenges of virtual learning in previous schools. They wanted to provide students with a foundation of “mental, emotional and social safety” before starting academic instruction, spending the first two weeks only on relationship-building.
Most of the 12 seniors describe their old school environments as causing them to fail academically, suffer from mental health issues or engage in suicidal ideations or self-harm.conducted by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, a national advocacy organization, nearly 80% of LGBTQ students in public and private schools in the state said they’d faced at least one form of discrimination during the school year.
Magic City administrators didn’t think they’d have a senior class in their inaugural year, fearing students would choose the familiarity of where they were over the uncertainty of a new school. Students dance at the Magic City Acceptance Academy school prom April 29, 2022. The school opened in August and is the first public, charter LGBTQ-affirming school in the South. Photo by Andi Rice for AL.com, a national LGBTQ youth advocacy and suicide prevention organization, the South is home to the largest proportion of the country’s LGBTQ young people.
Evans knew he wanted to teach there after an interview with the school where he learned they’d implement project-based learning and a social justice focus. Administrators tried to maintain a sense of normalcy and connectedness. The school’s counselor and social worker kept virtual office hours for any student who needed mental health services. Teachers provided well-attended community hours on Zoom during lunch break so students could have a space to gather and talk.
“Some of the things that we do notice with the isolation of the pandemic is that for [LGBTQ youth], going to school sometimes is one of the only places where they are able to communicate and feel like themselves because many don’t have that ability at home,” said Dr. Jesse Martinez Jr., a psychiatrist at Children’s of Alabama. “They lost that when they were not able to go to school or be with peer groups or friends.
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