Community reacts to 'grooming' comment about West Milford High School LGBTQ club

Members of the West Milford school community backed the efficacy of the district's Gender and Sexuality Alliance program this week, after a school board member labeled the club a grooming risk in June.

District officials this week said the club will continue as planned this fall, with current adviser and English teacher Catherine "Tina" Signorelli set to remain in her role. Signorelli said the club was created to provide a safe space for students to discuss LGBTQ+ issues, and that for several years it has done just that.

"We champion the students’ success and comfort them during their struggles," Signorelli said. "Our town, like many, needs GSA."

The high school club meets every other Monday for an hour after school. First called the Gay-Straight Alliance, it was created about 15 years ago by students, subjected to harassment over their gender identity or sexual orientation, seeking a hate-free zone, Signorelli said. Sarah Chandler, a 2021 West Milford High School graduate and resident, said that when she discovered the club, she found a hopeful space unlike any other in the school.

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"Coming home from my first GSA meeting … I was smiling," she said. "I hadn’t often found myself smiling for presumably no reason like that, but I felt hope."

School board members in June chose to postpone a vote on a GSA adviser stipend for Signorelli for 2023-24, after board member William Cytowicz broached concerns about the club's history and the potential for inappropriate conversations about sexuality between students and staff.

"In 2017, I believed it was a club that allowed for the possibility of grooming on impressionable youth," Cytowicz said in June. "In 2018, unfortunately, I was proven right."

Cytowicz's reference was to a former high school physical education teacher, Christopher Shenise, who at 32 years old was arrested and accused by law enforcement officials of attempting to bribe a 17-year-old girl into sending him a nude video. Shenise, who was also an assistant girls' volleyball coach, was a substitute adviser for the high school's Gender and Sexuality Alliance club before being suspended from his job in November 2018 and losing his teaching license.

Cytowicz said his June remarks did not come from a place of hate but out of concern for students. He said the statements made by the community in favor of the club opened his mind to the need for a place for young people to feel connected and seek support.

"I'm sorry that it seemed like I wanted something taken away," Cytowicz said. "I was looking out for the best interest of students. I didn't understand the impact."

Signorelli said the club should not be conflated with sex education. It broaches topics such as how to handle an unsupportive family member and how to be a better ally to the LGBTQ+ community, she said.

Raven Romero, a 2010 West Milford High School graduate, founding club member and resident, likened the club to suicide prevention.

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“Personally, for me, I would not be here today, alive, to speak on this if it wasn’t for the GSA," she said. "That was a community that showed me love, that showed me acceptance, that gave me a safe place to be myself.”

During the Tuesday meeting, board members twice extended the public comment session to allow community members to speak. Board member Lynda Van Dyk said it was particularly nice to see the dozens of current and former students and staff members come out to support one another and the GSA.

Despite the controversy and the delay on the stipend vote, the board was unlikely to eliminate the club. New Jersey's Law Against Discrimination prohibits school officials from enacting policies or practices that discriminate against students or staff based on their gender, sexual orientation or other protected characteristics, whether or not they are intended to be discriminatory. New Jersey is also one of seven states that require LGBTQ-inclusive instruction.

The district's middle school also has a GSA club. The 2023-24 stipend for that club's adviser has been approved by school board members.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Community reacts to grooming comment about West Milford HS LGBTQ club