Posted on 05/29/2002 12:48:20 AM PDT by JohnHuang2
Homosexual teachers in the Hayward Unified School District in Hayward, Calif. have been given the green light to "come out" in front of children, without the consent of parents.
The board of education unanimously adopted a resolution last month aimed at "providing a safe environment for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (referred to as LGBTQ) students and staff" that allows district employees to openly talk about their homosexuality with students during classroom instructional time. The resolution further calls for "age appropriate district curriculum" to be provided to each school that offers "positive images of LGBT people in the classroom and discuss[es] alternative family configurations." In addition, teachers are allowed to include various homosexual figures in their instruction and to read books with homosexual characters such as "Heather has Two Mommies."
"We're not saying, 'Let's teach the students about homosexuality,' Kimberly Hammond, the district's chief administrative officer for organizational development, told the Washington Times. "What we're saying is, 'How do we accept individuals who are different from ourselves?' Our school board is committed to maintaining a safe learning environment for all of our students." Repeated calls to Hammond were not returned.
The district claims the resolution seeks to comply with the California Student Safety and Violence Prevention Act of 2000 (AB537) that required the revision of state curriculum to "include human relations education, with the aim of fostering an appreciation of the diversity of California's population and discouraging the development of discriminatory attitudes and practices. ... Acknowledge lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender historical figures, events, concepts, and issues ..." As WorldNetDaily reported, the 2000 statutes picked up where the 1999 Carl Washington School Safety and Violence Prevention Act left off, tapping into $100 million allocated by the legislature for "preventing and responding to acts of hate violence."
Scott Lively, president of the Pro-Family Law Center in Citrus Heights, Calif., sees the Hayward resolution as part of a "national campaign that is being pushed by homosexual activists ... to homosexualize the public-school environment." Lively told the Times that his organization has received calls from concerned parents in Massachusetts, Vermont, Missouri and other towns in California during the past several months.
Kevin Jennings, executive director of the Gay Lesbian and Straight Education Network counters that schools need to actively promote tolerance among students and staff to combat harassment, discrimination and violence.
"What we have in our schools right now is that four out of five kids who are gay or lesbian are physically, verbally or sexually harassed during their school years," said Jennings on Fox News Channel's "The O'Reilly Factor" last night.
Addressing the Hayward resolution Jennings said, "In the neighboring district to Hayward – in Freemont, Calif. – they just did a survey of 8,000 students and found 57 percent of students in junior high heard anti-gay language every day at school. ... Schools need to intervene."
"We're not talking about a teacher who just waits for a child to ask them whether or not they're gay," argued Brad Dacus, president of the Pacific Justice Institute, on the Fox program. "We're talking about a policy that not only allows these teachers to 'come out' but actually to ... 'infuse a gay, lesbian, bisexual, transsexual relevant curriculum across disciplines' all throughout education and also put up anti-homophobic posters to stigmatize those kids who come from religious backgrounds who don't agree with that."
After being contacted by concerned Hayward parents, Dacus' non-profit legal defense organization sent a letter to the school board demanding the policy be rescinded.
"While I agree that no individual should be subjected to any form of harassment or violence, I refuse to allow my responsibility as a parent to be violated ..." said one of the parents represented by the institute, who prefers not to be named.
In response to the institute's demand letter, Hayward Unified Chief Counsel Ralph Stern reiterated an invitation to this concerned parent to "have a voice in the development" of future multi-cultural curriculum.
Public schools across the country face the threat of lawsuits by advocacy groups such as GLSEN if they fail to address "student-on-student abuse based on sexual orientation" in their "safety" programs. On its website, GLSEN applauded a "landmark settlement" received by a Pennsylvania 'gay' teen earlier this year.
"The court's decision to award 19-year-old Timothy Dahle with a settlement of $312,000 to compensate for the pervasive anti-gay abuse he faced in the Titusville Area School District is breathtaking," the website quoted Jennings as saying. "There are clear lessons to be learned by school administrators and staff ... that teachers and staff take a risk – a risk that can have dire fiscal implications on their districts – when this kind of maltreatment goes unchecked."
Lawsuits from parents outraged over the "sensitivity training" are an equal threat, maintains Dacus "The school board mistakenly believes that allowing teachers to flaunt homosexuality to students is required, and they are wrong. In fact, the district is exposing itself to potential costly litigation."
California Education Code requires schools give prior notice to parents of what's being taught, allows parents time to review the material to be presented, allows for parents to authorize children to "opt-out" of course instruction pertaining to famly life on the basis of religious belief, and prohibits any questions being directed to children about their personal beliefs without the prior consent of parents.
Under the Hayward board's resolution, neither schools nor teachers are obligated to provide prior notice to parents of the homosexual 'sensitivity training,' and parents are not given an opportunity to opt their children out of the instruction.
"Hayward Unified School District cannot unilaterally override parental rights guaranteed by the California Education Code and federal law," said Dacus.
As WorldNetDaily reported, the institute filed a lawsuit earlier this year, on behalf of parents, against the Novato Unified School District in Novato, Calif. for authorizing pro-homosexual assemblies without any prior notice or parental consent. The suit alleges the parents' fundamental constitutional and civil rights to direct the upbringing of their children and the free exercise of religion were violated.
"Teachers are the experts on what is age appropriate," maintained Jennings last night.
When host Bill O'Reilly asked him at what age he felt books like "Heather Has Two Mommies" were appropriate Jennings responded, "The reality is there are kids in that classroom right now who are the children of gay parents and they are feeling afraid, they're feeling alone. They're feeling like they don't belong and they have a right to feel like they belong. ... You're not inculcating anybody anything. You're saying, 'There's a variety of people in the world, kids. You don't have to like all of them. You don't have to approve of all of them. You have to respect all of them."
"Parents are the ones who are the experts in deciding what is appropriate for their children at the proper age," Dacus argued. "[Schools] need to stick to academics. And as far as this school district, let it be known they cited AB537 signed into law by Governor Gray Davis, which means we're going to be seeing this all throughout the state of Calif. ... We haven't seen the last of this."
Dr. Dobson was right. Get your kids out of public schools. (And spare me the posts from those who claim *their* schools are different. Everyone always thinks their schools are the exceptions.)
Like most of the higher-ups in the Gay-stapo, Kevin Jennings has a black belt in victimization.
Note how he turned O'Reilly's question around to make a plea for the poor kids of homosexuals in school who are -- according to him -- afraid. And while he says "There's a variety of people in the world, kids. You don't have to like all of them. You don't have to approve of all of them," he's a bald-faced liar. If any of those kids should let fly that they don't like or approve of homosexuality, there will be hell to pay -- or, more accurately, people of his ilk will sue the school district to make someone pay.
The gay and lesbian prisoners in the Nazi concentration and extermination camps, who were forced to wear pink triangles, were put there by the Gestapo.
Be careful, sir, about the obscenities you so casually strew.
How true. Whether they are gay, straight, or whatever, teachers should not be discussing their sex life with students. That is completely inappropriate.
Child Protective Services should call for S.W.A.T. backup and surround the school and arrest all administrators that signed off on this, and any teachers as well.
NOW is the time to stop this madness with the same amount of effort we are using against terrorism. It is a crime against nature, common sense screams it from the mountaintops!!!
and damn right I am a homophobe, does it not scare the crap out of you that public schools are teaching our kids utter wickedness? Does anyone care anymore?
When I was in school they were still actually teaching children the old adage, "sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me". Maybe the social change-agents in the publik skool systems should revert to more than just phonics and REAL history.....
I heard the owner of the website linked below on my drive home from work, and I'm bumping this post, but I do think it would have gotten more, needed, attention if it had been posted when people are awake and at their computers.
When I was in 9th grade (back in the early 70s), we were absolutely a-twitter to hear that two of our English teachers (a he and she, by the way) were caight smooching in a supply closet. And THAT was scandalous. How cynical we've become...
For the record, these teachers have NO NO NO business doing this.
Number one: My use of the phrase "Gay-stapo" is not done "casually." Number two: The only "obscenity" is what people like Kevin Jennings and those whom he dupes on a regular basis do to the right of parents to choose the moral teaching of their children. This contemptible cretin, in case you didn't read the article carefully, has just said on national television that "teachers are the experts on what is age-appropriate" regarding sexual matters.
Do you agree with that? Do you believe that a school district that believes that has proper respect for the parents of its students?
I don't throw around Nazi allegories around all the time like many here do. You really have to be pretty malicious and slanderous in order to get that sort of thing out of me. The radical gay movement has earned the title "Gay-stapo" the way that their propaganda machine has lied and vilified those who oppose them in any fashion. The minions of the Gay-stapo are all over, in every field of influence, and are now wielding their power to force parents in this country to either accede to their moral lessons or be marginalized as the modern day equivalent of pre-Civil Rights Era bigots. That is a FACT, jack.
You aren't the first Freeper to object to my use of this phrase, and here is how I responded the last time someone spoke up as you have. From a post of November 2000 ("SF Pro-Gore Rally Organizer: Polygamous Bisexual Sado-Masochist Pagan Activist")
88 Posted on 11/20/2000 11:27:23 PST by L.N. Smithee
To: BelialThe job of the Gestapo was to implement Hitler's vision throughout Germany by a variety of methods, some overt, some covert, but always with a strategy of smearing those whom they wanted to destroy.
An illustration of what I mean is in my essay, "I Won't Hate Homosexuals No Matter How Much The Media Wants Me To."
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