The Associated Press

CANNONSBURG, Ky. - More than one-third of Boyd County High School's students missed a day of school to protest a decision to let a gay-rights student group meet on campus, the district superintendent said.

The students - 420 of the school's 990 students were not in school Monday - will be counted as absent for the day, Superintendent Bill Capehart said.

Most of the absent students were boycotting because of last week's vote by the school's teacher-parent council on the Gay-Straight Alliance, Mr. Capehart said.

A ministers' group is planning a community protest of the alliance Sunday.

The council's 3-2 vote was its third this year about the group. It rejected the group's application twice before student organizers contacted the American Civil Liberties Union, which sent a letter in September to the council saying it was violating the federal Equal Access Act by denying the alliance permission to meet at the school in Cannonsburg. The act says if schools allow some extracurricular groups to meet at school, it must allow all groups to do so.

Andrea Opell, 17, a senior from Rush, stayed out of school for part of the morning to participate in the protest but later showed up because she wanted to attend swim practice later in the day. "It's just quiet and gloomy," Andrea said. "There's not a lot going on. Not a lot of cars in the parking lot. Not a lot of people in the hallway."

She said it was unclear how many students stayed away because they opposed the Gay-Straight Alliance and how many decided to just take a day off, especially with another free day today because of the election.

But she said "parents are behind the kids 100 percent" and the boycott could continue.

Jenny Reese, mother of Lena Reese, a 15-year-old Catlettsburg sophomore who is a member of the alliance, called the boycott ridiculous. "I just don't think it's a good idea for parents to let their children stay home from school," Ms. Reese said. "It doesn't set a good example for tolerance."

Ms. Reese said her daughter and other supporters of the alliance also were out of school Monday on a school-sponsored trip.

James Esseks, litigation director for the ACLU's lesbian and gay-rights project, said the boycott represented "the first time I've heard of a reaction of this kind or this size" to the creation of a gay-straight alliance at a school.

"The level of reaction or resistance they're encountering illustrates the need for a safe place for these kids to meet," Mr. Esseks said. "Can you imagine being a gay or lesbian student in a community where people feel so free in expressing their intolerance? That must be a difficult place to be."

After the council's vote last week on the Gay-Straight Alliance, more than 100 students walked out of school Wednesday, Mr. Capehart said. All but 24 returned, he said. One student was arrested on charges of destroying student property and harassing a teacher, he said. That student is suspended indefinitely, he added.

The alliance held its first Boyd County meeting Friday, with 19 students in attendance, teacher-adviser Kaye King said.