The room is empty. Mr. Rozewski sits at a desk waiting for more students, yet only two sit looking back at him, waiting for instructions he does not have.

The Gender Sexuality Alliance was once a thriving club at Benson. Just last year I attended the GSA; we were meeting every week, eating pizza, hosting guest speakers, and more. But, unfortunately, with every rise there is a fall. The new normal for the meetings became two or three people, no pizza or snacks, and a free range, boring meeting with no guidance. And eventually people stopped coming and the meetings stopped happening.

So why is it that, even in these most desperate times for the LGBTQ+ community and politics in general, have we lost our community’s guidance? The uptick in homophobia district-wide has already been affecting the gay and transgender community. It’s hard for Benson’s queer community, myself included, to go even a day without hearing homophobic slurs in the hallways or even in the classroom. This is where the teachers noticed a shift in the political ecosystem. We needed our community back, but no one would step up and lead the Gender Sexuality Alliance. That was until our art teacher, Mr. Rozewski, stepped up.

Charlie Fogarty, a senior, recounts his experience of accidentally stepping into the B-flex GSA meeting while trying to grab art supplies. He was instantly invited to be a member of the new GSA group by Mr. Rozewski . He obliged, but noticed that he was only one of only two members: himself and his friend who accompanied him to art. Mr. Rozewski immediately assigned them leadership roles, as well as instructed them to contact the school about the GSA advertisement being so unseen.

Fogarty told me,“I don’t think people are coming to GSA because such a large population of Benson students are queer. We don’t really need to meet to be a successful community.” Perhaps that’s the reason the GSA stopped meeting, or maybe it was the snacks after all. After all this talk, it made me wonder why Mr. Rozewski even took this position in the first place.

I wasn’t sure what to expect with the interview with Mr. Rozewski. He explained that he was in fact one of the only teachers who were willing to revive GSA and that it seemed now was a time of need for people to remember their rights as US citizens. “I saw that there was a need, especially in this time of political turmoil, to address some important things like basic human rights, the Constitution, and liberty and happiness,” explained Mr. Rozewski. “There’s a lot of backlash right now. People are feeling scared. I just felt like I wanted to help out somehow and just be a part of the community where I live and support students and their struggles.”

However, more than three flex periods have passed with no students, besides the two who mistakenly walked in this past Thursday.