(This article, reprinted with permission, featuring future alums, appeared in The Columbus Dispatch on May 2, 2003)

Bexley High-Schoolers' movie promotes tolerance
Students tell story of fictional teen-ager who reveals he's gay

By Kathy Lynn Gray
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Justin was the all-American boy: Star of the swim team. Handsome. A leader.

But when his friends learned that he was gay, Justin was ostracized. When he told his parents that night, his father ordered him out of the house.

That evening, Justin wrote a suicide note, revved up his car in a closed garage and waited to die.

Justin isn't real -- he's the central character in Team Spirit, a 5-minute film Bexley High School students wrote, performed and shot for the Buckeye Ranch Film Festival today at AMC Easton Town Center.

But his story isn't a fairy tale either.

Some in the Bexley group remembered the 1998 suicide of a 14-year-old Bexley boy who reportedly was gay.

The film, said senior Zach Rosen, 18, who played Justin, shows how difficult life can be for gay teen-agers.

"It's not just about tolerance of homosexuals; it's just accepting people who are different for who they are. Everyone has redeeming qualities you need to appreciate.''

Students in four performing-arts classes auditioned for roles in the film. Others had behind-the-scenes jobs.

The students decided Justin would be the swim-team captain to illustrate "that everyday people are gay,'' said Todd Decker, head of the district's theatre department and the director of the film.

"That makes it more of a shock when he says he's gay,'' said student director Davey Ballantine, 16, a sophomore. "If you said you were gay, people would think differently of you.''

Two performing-arts classes at Bexley wrote the script, using as a guideline the film festival's purpose: to help children work through problems with violence, drug use and other issues.

About 3,000 students will attend the festival today to see 120 student-made films.

"It's peer-to-peer education,'' said Patti Markham, public-relations director at the ranch. "It's other kids saying, 'Here's how I handled it.' ''

After today, Decker hopes to screen Bexley's film for the high-school's student body. He hopes it will promote tolerance and cut down on gay-bashing slang sometimes used in schools.

"It opened up my eyes as to how loosely terms like fag and queer get thrown around -- way too much,'' said junior John Sarvas, 17, who played a swimmer called Smitty.

Scriptwriter Andrea Kopp said the experience of making the film has opened her eyes.

"Since working on the movie, I've thought about it a lot more and made a conscious effort to embrace the diversity around me,'' said Kopp, 18, a senior. "In high school, guys have to live up to the image 'I'm so cool and tough.' ''

Decker said at Fort Hayes Metropolitan Education Center, where he worked until this school year, being gay was more accepted.

"But here, if you saw two guys holding hands, it would be an issue,'' he said.

Since the film project started, several gay students have talked privately to Decker about their situations, he said.

At the end of the film, Justin's best friend, Tyler, is on his way to apologize to Justin.

Whether he reaches him in time to save his life is left unanswered.

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