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       It didn’t get better at the Lynchburg City School Board this week, where adults who were elected to support students instead doubled-down on smacking them down.

       A month after they were propelled by their own bias to reject a $10,000 grant won by the students of the Gender and Sexuality Alliance from a global nonprofit organization that supports LGBTQ teens and their mental health, the Virginia school board answered the community’s outrage with another dumbfounding action — delaying a $5,000 grant from Dick’s Sporting Goods for middle school volleyball equipment.

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       First it was the gays, now it’s the volleyballs?

       It’s about the donor, some of them insisted, doubling down on their solution to apply fresh and fierce scrutiny to every grant. Sort of an All Grants Matter approach.

       Virginia school board rejects $10K grant won by LGBTQ students.

       “If there’s something wrong with Dick’s …” board member Christian DePaul began, attempting to jump-start discussion. A quiet ripple of snickers from the standing-room-only audience at Tuesday night’s meeting interrupted him.

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       The board president rapped his gavel and issued a stern warning to a room filled with rainbow flags, parents and teens.

       DePaul, one of the seven board members who voted last month to reject the grant that students had won from the It Gets Better Project to create a calming room open to all the students of E.C. Glass High School, earlier asked to “clear the room” of the public at the public meeting (they didn’t).

       Then he grew increasingly irked as he tried to explain this new line of reasoning.

       “If there’s something wrong with Dick’s Sporting Goods,” he said, peevishly articulating each word, to further giggles and gaveling, “then let’s bring it up and let’s discuss it.”

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       Okay, let’s.

       Dick’s Sporting Goods chief executive Ed Stack made national news in 2018 when he pulled assault-style weapons from the chain’s inventory after learning of the school shooting in Parkland, Fla., saying, “I don’t want to be part of the story anymore.”

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       Is that a controversy?

       School board member Sharon Carter, who was in favor of the GSA grant last month, voted to accept the volleyball money Tuesday night. The rest of the board voted against it. They want more information, they said.

       Last month, when they knew their grant was at risk of being rejected, students of the GSA faced the board with shaking voices and a few tears to explain the two things they asked for in their grant proposal and to plead with the school board to accept it, perhaps even to celebrate their victory.

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       First, they want to provide menstrual products to all students, something mandated by commonwealth statutes but often paid for by faculty and staff members digging into their own pockets. (Several adults excoriated the board for that at Tuesday’s meeting; board members said they’re working on it.)

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       And second, they want a “calming” or “chill” room that would be open to the entire student body. These rooms, with low-intensity lighting and comfortable spaces to regroup and exhale, are becoming common in schools across the nation. It’s the same concept as the break rooms that have been part of American workplaces forever. In schools, they’re a safe harbor for students to regroup, then return to learning, if they’re wrangling with bullying or mental health issues amid the pounding anxiety of a generation regularly drilled in and threatened with lockdowns and active-shooter exercises.

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       The school board members worried that accepting the money was a “slippery slope” and pearl-clutched about the “strings” that might be attached to the funding.

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       “I ask the board, a slippery slope to what?” said Sara Beck, a Lynchburg parent and psychology professor at Randolph College who testified at Tuesday’s meeting. “There is no downside to promoting mental health in this community.”

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       The only string attached to the grant — which was detailed in the material the students provided to the school board well ahead of the debate — was that they have a sign somewhere declaring the nonprofit’s mantra: “It Gets Better.”

       The organization was created after the nation was rocked by a number of LGBTQ teen suicides in 2010 and people — mostly LGBTQ celebrities — started posting YouTube videos detailing their own struggles, promising that life would get better.

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       This week, the school board had the opportunity to show the students this.

       The community came to the meeting in force, waving rainbow flags and holding signs that said “We Love Our LGBTQ Students.” They doubled the usual public comment time, imploring the cash-strapped school system to do the right thing, to accept the money, to honor the students.

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       “I was excited to see that discussion will continue on the agenda,” said the Rev. Gail Goldsmith, the rector at Trinity Episcopal Church in Lynchburg. She testified wearing her clerical collar and a rainbow armband.

       “One principle of religion is that we can always reconsider, we can always repent … we don’t have to double down on anything,” she said.

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       But doubling down is exactly what the board did when they refused to accept the GSA grant and tried to prove its evenhandedness by going after the volleyball kids.

       Realizing they were tumbling down their own slippery slope, some of the school board members said they would raise, even donate, their own money to create the project. Kayden Johnson, a student at E.C. Glass, started a GoFundMe campaign. (Which is nice but doesn’t address the larger problem of leadership and morality.)

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       The school board members were hurt, after all.

       After the board voted to reject the GSA money — thus dismissing the leadership, compassion and initiative of the students — nationwide outrage ensued. Some of the board members said they were bullied, even threatened.

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       “I am sorry you all have finally felt what it’s like to live under scrutiny and fear because of your identity,” said Brittany Harris, 17, a co-president of the GSA, in a passionate speech to the board Tuesday night. “I sincerely hope that you had somewhere safe to calm down from the emotional toll of these threats.”

       “I sincerely hope you all stay safe,” Brittany said. “Just remember, it gets better for you.”

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