Posted on 05/18/2006 9:49:01 AM PDT by baldeagle390
Port Washington - One of the high school teachers involved in using the "Heterosexual Questionnaire" in classrooms has "mutually agreed" to go on administrative leave until a decision is made on possible disciplinary action, school principal Duane Woelfel said Wednesday.
The social studies teacher, Sarah Olson, declined to comment.
Woelfel said he and Olson agreed to Olson's going on paid leave Tuesday "for her well-being and the well-being of students in her class."
Woelfel said Olson will remain on leave until Woelfel finishes an investigation into how the survey was distributed to several hundred students April 25.
The principal said he expects to finish the investigation Friday and decide early next week whether any disciplinary action will be taken.
Woelfel also confirmed reports that Olson and Julie Grudzinski, a communications teacher involved in getting the survey distributed, had discussed the classroom activity beforehand with an assistant principal.
How much the assistant principal, Eric Burke, knew about the questionnaire's content, however, is "something that we need to iron out," Woelfel said.
Olson and Grudzinski are faculty advisors to Students for Unity, an after-school club at the school. At the teachers' direction, members of the club spent April 25 presenting the Heterosexual Questionnaire to classes, during which it was discussed for a full period.
Students in those classes ranged from freshmen to seniors.
The intent of the activity was not to have students fill out the survey, although some did, but to spur discussion on the day before the national Day of Silence, an annual effort aimed at reducing the harassment of non-heterosexual students.
Some students and parents said they understood the value of considering questions regularly asked of homosexuals. But others were angered about spending a class period discussing the survey and about many of the questions, which they considered an invasion of privacy.
Questions included: "When did you decide you were heterosexual?" and "If you have never slept with someone of your same gender, then how do you know you wouldn't prefer it?"
Gay-rights advocates who have used the questionnaire with youths say it can be a useful tool to increase sensitivity but should be presented by people who are trained.
The Heterosexual Questionnaire was developed by the late Martin Rochlin, a prominent gay psychologist. According to the University of Southern California, where he earned his PhD, Rochlin founded the American Psychological Association's Society for the Psychological Study of Lesbian and Gay Issues.
Woelfel and Patty Ruth, president of the Port Washington-Saukville School Board, have said that although the questionnaire was well-intended, it was inappropriate and measures would be put in place to prevent such a survey from being brought into classrooms.
Oooooooooooh. This punishment hurts! Please, Sir! May I have another?
"Oooooooooooh. This punishment hurts!"
LOL! I wish I got a paid vacation from my job every time I screwed up. Safe to say I would be walking around banging on servers with a 10 lb sledge.
Oh yeah, and we are constantly told that by bringing "Homo awareness" in schools, that it would not be a "recruiting" tool.
"Gay-rights advocates who have used the questionnaire with youths say it can be a useful tool to increase sensitivity but should be presented by people who are trained."
That's right you don't want some amateur recruiter screwing things up.
"If you have never slept with someone of your same gender, then how do you know you wouldn't prefer it?"
Hmmm, they may be on to something here..
I've never:
* Slammed my unit in a car door
* Run a razor blade across my eye
* Had a pepper spray enema
* Eaten cat crap (my dog seems to like it, she's usually got good taste)
I might be missing out on all these pleasures and I'll never know 'til I try..
"If you have never slept with someone of your same gender, then how do you know you wouldn't prefer it?"
Uh, because some of us (the vast majority of human beings) have a procreative impulse which functions normally.
LOL! That was good.
I've never slept with a liberal but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't enjoy it!
Does eating 1/2 a jar of chile peppers at one sitting count for #3 on your list? Cause I'm gonna have to raise my hand on that one if it does....;^)
I'm very familiar with that feeling. The food's gone, the beer's gone, the jar of peppers is empty.
and now, you realize the check is in the mail and that in mere hours you'll be fighting the urge to get up and run, when you know you have to remain seated.
An apt description...=80
FYI: a followup story to the "Heterosexual Questionnaire" story: The survey says what? Sexual-orientation questions cause stir at Port high school.
Prominent "gay" or prominent psychologist or prominent psychologist of "gays"?
The teachers should be fired, arrested for contributing to the delinquency of minors (or whatever kind of law similar to that if there's one still around) and then civil suits by every parent.
DUH
That's what should happen, it won't though.
"If you have never slept with someone of your same gender, then how do you know you wouldn't prefer it?"
I've never licked my finger and stuck it in an electrical socket either, but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't like it.
"If you have never slept with someone of your same gender, then how do you know you wouldn't prefer it?"
My brother always says, Even if that had ever entered my mind, which it did not, my first rectal exam would have proven I wanted no part of it!!
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