The Revere High School SPECTRUM club will host a question panel to educate the people of the Revere Local School District about the LGTBQIA+ community.

SPECTRUM adviser Kathy Harris explained that the club will host a discussion entitled Supporting LGBTQ teens…..at home, in school, in the community to promote awareness about the teenage [LGBTQIA+] community and the adversities that the community faces. Harris elaborated on how the panel will unfold.

“The panel will consist of representatives from PFLAG, from GLSEN, a mental health professional, parents, alumni, school counselors, local clergy and a librarian from Richfield Library.  Each panelist will be addressing a specific topic pertinent to the program’s title followed by a [question and answer] session.  Refreshments will be served.  We are hoping that our audience will consist of parents, community members, staff, administration and students–a wide array of people who are interested in learning more about the [LGBTQIA+] community and how to support them,” Harris said.

Revere senior and co-president of the SPECTRUM club Breanna Greenfield explained what the club hopes to achieve from hosting the panel.

“Our panel meeting is specifically to educate those who come on the issues with [LGBTQIA+] community. Some of the topics we will be talking about will include suicide rates in correlation to [LGBTQIA+] youth, ‘It gets better’ stories, how to support [and] properly handle having an [LGBTQIA+] member in your family, associations like churches that are affiliated with the issue, and a few other [topics],” Greenfield said.

Harris also elaborated on how the club has been working to promote awareness and education.

“We met with Mr. DePompei and Mrs Long, our school counselors, and discussed ways to  cope with and address bullying and harassment at the high school. We met with Mr. Montgomery, school superintendent, to discuss our club, its mission, and our plans for the future. We made a presentation to the High School PTSA, the Middle School PTA, and the RMS teaching staff to educate and inform about them about Spectrum. We held an event in the HS cafeteria to commemorate No Name Calling Week where we designed a banner whose message read:  ‘Be An Ally, Put Downs, Ethnic, Homophobic, Racial, and Sexist Remarks Are Not Accepted in Our School. Respect Everyone’s Differences.’ Over  150 students signed the banner  and we have plans to hang it in the cafeteria. We also handed out our wristbands those two days and accepted donations for homeless LGBTQ youth in Akron. We gave those donations which totaled $110 to the Akron Gay Community Endowment Foundation to be used to support homeless LGBTQ youth ,” Harris said.

Other senior co-president Gillian Godding voiced what she hopes the SPECTRUM club achieves.

“My personal goals for this club [are] to create a safe place for the people in this shcool who are part of the [LGBTQIA+] community and also gain straight allies. I [want] to educate those who are curious,” Godding said.

The panel will take place on March 16 at 7 pm in room 200 at Revere High School and is open to all.