A SUPPORT group has defended a Co Armagh Catholic school that provided information about a gay youth event to pupils.
Cara-Friend spoke out after the parents of a boy attending St Patrick’s Grammar School in Armagh asked their solicitor to send the school a letter.
The parents, who do not want to be named, say information was distributed at the school about the Northern Ireland LGBTQ+ Youth Forum event in Belfast this weekend.
The letter was sent after the boy was asked by a teacher to place a poster promoting the event in a classroom.
He refused and later told his parents.
Earlier this week his father said: “It’s promoting a lifestyle that we vehemently disagree with."
Deputy Director of Cara-Friend Declan Meehan last night said "St Patrick's Grammar is an excellent example of promoting LGBTQ+ inclusion and visibility in schools”.
“We believe it is also a fine example of true Christian ethos through that inclusion and visibility, which has the wellbeing of its students at the heart of its mission," he said.
Mr Meehan said the information distributed through the poster could help someone in need.
"The reality is that there are LGBTQ+ students in this school,” he said.
“This poster could potentially have given support and information to someone who really needs it and in the balancing of rights that would outweigh any objections this one family could have as it does not detract from any rights or protections afforded them.”
