Controversy Continues Over Virginia Beach School Board LGBT Policy

When it comes to getting itself embroiled in controversy. few public bodies show the ineptitude of the Three Stooges like Virginia Beach School Board.  The board's public relations skills are nil and those on its PR team truly seem to be utterly incompetent. A case in point is what many see as the board's anti-LGBT mentality in the wake of the abrupt cancellation of a Gay-Straight Alliance assembly at Frank F. Cox High School, the neighboring high school to my old neighborhood in Virginia Beach. The Virginian Pilot is carrying another guest editorial  on the issue which like that by Grace Bonney previously highlighted is authored by two individuals who I have known for years.  Like others, they call on the Board to clarify policies towards LGBT students who still face daily harassment and bullying in far too many instances.  While Virginia Beach likes to picture itself as a modern city, it remains among the most reactionary cities in Virginia with Christofascists still holding too much sway in the public arena and in school policies.  It is long past time that the city moved into the 21st century. Here are op-ed highlights:

AS ALUMNI of Virginia Beach City Public Schools, we have followed the cancellation of Cox High School’s Gay-Straight Alliance event with concern and dismay. While the event has been rescheduled, the School Board has neither acknowledged any potential homophobia inherent in the event’s postponement nor addressed the atmosphere of harassment that LGBTQ students face in Virginia Beach schools. We find this troubling.

Incoming School Board member Victoria Manning, who called for the cancellation of the GSA assembly, noted in The Pilot on Dec. 9 that certain parents were upset about “the timing and nature of the event.”

This is puzzling. The “nature of the event” was to promote acceptance of differences and combat bullying. Despite Manning’s language, we don’t find anything controversial in that objective, and we suspect that opposition to the event reflects ingrained homophobia as much as procedural error.

We agree that club meetings and assemblies during the school day must be rare. But we are concerned here about process.

We suspect not. We note that the planned GSA gathering was optional; surely a parent concerned about a child missing class time might simply have advised her son or daughter not to attend.

The school division’s policies in this area are, by the board’s own admission, ambiguous. We are interested in the history of school-day gatherings at Cox and other schools. Under what circumstances and for what organizations have such assemblies been held? Indeed, the Virginia ACLU has asked the School Board for such data.

Manning has suggested that her 11th-hour email to Edwards was the result of outreach from parents who were concerned about the impact of the assembly on classroom time.

We ask: What compels parents to call a School Board member to register alarm about a specific assembly? We wonder whether parents routinely object to pep rallies and sporting events that interrupt the instructional day. What about guest speakers? Holiday celebrations? Theatrical events? Awards ceremonies?

The Cox GSA assembly — which was designed to celebrate “love is love” after a gay student who was bullied attempted suicide — was directly related to preserving the sanctity of the classroom experience for all students.

Nationwide, LGBTQ teens are at higher risk for bullying and harassment, including verbal and physical assault, and nowhere is such marginalization more conspicuous, even systematized, than in our schools.

Human Rights Watch recently conducted a study on the treatment of gay and lesbian youth in Alabama, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas and Utah and found that “almost all of the students interviewed reported encountering verbal harassment in their school environment, even in the most LGBT-friendly schools.”

Studies conducted by the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network found that 32 percent of LGBTQ students did not go to school at least one day because of feeling unsafe, 44 percent had experienced physical harassment, 22 percent had experienced stronger violence (61 percent never reported it), and 31 percent said the school had made no attempt to respond to those students who had reported attacks.

These statistics reveal the atmosphere of intimidation that predisposes gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youth to a suicide rate that is four times higher than that of straight youth.

Virginia has no law prohibiting bullying based on sexual orientation or gender identity in schools (nor does it provide legal protections for LGBTQ teachers and administrators).

We condemn the fact that Manning has received threats. We also wish that “What really happened with the Gay-Straight Alliance,” her Dec. 10 Pilot column, had acknowledged the hostility that LGBTQ students face daily.

We are eager to learn the specific strategies that the School Board will employ to clarify its policies — and, more importantly, to ensure the safety and well-being of LGBTQ students in Virginia Beach classrooms.
 

As I told one school board directly, from my dealings with the Virginia Beach School Board that stretch back more than 20 years, I have very little confidence in its willingness to do the right thing for LGBT students.   I am still waiting to be proven wrong.  As for the parents who complained, I suspect that many or all are Christofascists who view any effort to stem their mistreatment and abuse of others as an "attack on their religious freedom."  I'm sorry, but the public schools should stand firm against bully based on toxic religious beliefs.  Religious freedom rights and the right to attend school free from harassment belong to everyone, not just the falsely pious "godly Christian" crowd.  

Parents Can Keep Kids Out of GSA in South Carolina

I have twice commented before about the controversy in the Richland-Lexington District Five school district in South Carolina over the formation of a Gay/Straight Alliance club ("GSA"). Turmoil to date has included a wingnut high school principal's decision to resign rather than work at a school that allowed the formation of the GSA in the school. At first the local fundie element was pushing the school board to eliminate ALL non-academic clubs rather than have to allow the GSA under the federal equal access laws. Fortunately, the school board grew some balls (or maybe just one ball) and rejected the option of eliminating all clubs, but put in place a provision where parents can block their children from attending clubs. I'd be willing to bet that it is precisely the kids of the parents blocking their involvement in the GSA who need the GSA the most. At some point something needs to be done in my opinion about loony parents who inflict emotional and psychological harm on their children due to their kookie/hatee based religious views. Physical abuse is not the only way to seriously mess up children and teenagers. Here are some high lights from WIS News 10 in Columbia, South Carolina:

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IRMO, SC (WIS) - High school students in one Midlands school district are in for some changes when they go back to school this fall. At a meeting Monday night, Richland-Lexington District Five board members decided to allow the formation of non-academic clubs. That would include clubs like the Gay/Straight Alliance. Plans for that club at Irmo High School in the district have caused a lot of controversy lately. But while non-academic clubs will be allowed to form, parents still have a way to keep their children from joining them.

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"Passing a policy which has never been necessary in the past at this point is because of the GSA. We look at this as a way to circumvent federal law," said Ray Drew of South Carolina Equality. My group is already training students, teachers, parents and administrators at Irmo High School for what they should be looking for next year. Anything out of compliance with federal law, we are going to be watching everything," says Drew.

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Some parents have already said when they see the Gay/Straight Alliance club as an option for their child's list, it will be the first club to be marked off. "I can make the decision. Not the Gay/Straight Alliance. What kind of assistance he needs. Protect him physically, emotionally and any way it goes," said one parent. "I don't want any organization to sway my child one way or the other." Some opponents of the policy say it is going to make kids who can't talk about their sexuality with their parents feel alone.

South Carolina Insanity/Bigotry

Years ago when I lived in Alabama, we would always say "Thank God for Mississippi" since in no matter what the ranking involved might be, Mississippi almost always scored worse or rated lower that Alabama in terms of backwardness, etc. Now, liviing in Virginia - hardly a beacon of of progressive thinking - I can say "Thank God for South Carolina" where the level of bigotry and out right religious insanity seems to know few limits. Between a local school district which is seriously considering the elimination of all school clubs rather than allow the formation of a GSA to the legislature's adoption of a bill that aloows the Christianists to have auto license plates with "I Believe" and a cross on them, the level bat sh*ttery in the state seems to be completely out of control.

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In terms of the license plates, it seems to me the legislators are needlessly pandering to the Christianist voting block with no thought or care as to the larger message that will be sent by these state issued license plates. Moreover, I find it ironic that the modern day Pharisees in South Carolina who would be the likely purchasers will be enabled by the state to wear their intolerant religion on their vehicles (as opposed to their sleeves) while at the at the same time by their actions and propaganda they spread a message of hate against gays, immigrants, non-Christians and others (I personnally suspect that many of these "Christians" are probably also racists and hate black as well). What the Hell is in the water down there? First some highlights from Yahoo News on the insane efforts to block a high school Gay-Straight Alliance club:

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A South Carolina school district has delayed until later in the month a vote on whether to ban all student clubs that don't relate to academics or sports as a way to close a gay student organization. Vice chairman Robert Gantt said Monday the Lexington-Richland School District 5 board was delaying its vote on whether to ban the clubs to get more public input.

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Officials had said the district couldn't stop the alliance from forming because federal law prohibits discriminating against a club based on its purpose. The Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network says there are about 4,000 gay-straight alliances at schools nationwide, including 16 in South Carolina. (AP)

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One has to wonder whether these nutcases education bureaucrats have given any thought to the fact that the elimination of all clubs is surely NOT in the best interest of district's students? Most likely not, since with the Christianists, its's really all about coddling their bigotry. Nothing else matters. As for the license plate issue, while the state's Republican Governor seems in touch with reality and the concept of separation of church and state, the rest of the legislature clearly is not. Here are highlights from the New York Times:

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South Carolina drivers will be the first in the nation to be offered license plates that carry the phrase “I Believe” and a Christian cross over a stained-glass window under a law that took effect on Thursday.

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The bill authorizing the plate passed the State House and Senate unanimously on May 22. It became law without the signature of Gov. Mark Sanford, a Republican, under the South Carolina Constitution. “While I do, in fact, ‘believe,’ it is my personal view that the largest proclamation of one’s faith ought to be in how one lives one’s life,” Mr. Sanford wrote on Thursday in a letter to Glenn F. McConnell, president pro tem of the Senate and a fellow Republican.

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Representatives of the American Civil Liberties Union and the American Jewish Congress said they were considering suing the state over the plate. Neither organization was aware of any previous state that has approved a similar plate. A proposal for an “I believe” plate in Florida failed in April. “The whole issue here is that people are trying to get the state to endorse their religion, and that’s wrong,” said Dr. T. Jeremey Gunn, director of the A.C.L.U. Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief. “It’s almost as if there’s insufficient support, and they have to go to the state to get it.”

Wingnut High School Principal Resigns Over Gay-Straight Alliance

WISTV-10 in Columbia, South Carolina is reporting that Eddie Walker, Principal of Irmo High School (pictured at left), has resigned effective June 30, 2008, because the school district is allowing a Gay-Straight Alliance to form at Irmo High School. Frankly, if Mr. Walker is such a fanatical Christianist that the mere existence of a GSA put him over the edge, both the high school and the school district will be better off without him. Perhaps he can convert to Islam and move to Iran where such closed mindedness and religious based bigotry are accepted. His intolerance towards others surely is not the type of example that should be presented to high school students who need to be learning how to live in a multicultural and religiously diverse nation and larger world.

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It is precisely bigots like Eddie Walker that create atmospheres where LGBT youths come to believe that suicide is their best option. It is also an atmosphere that progressive businesses and emplyers avoid. Last time I checked, South Carolina is not exactly an economic powerhouse. Bigotry and intolerance have a clear economic price. May God judge Mr. Walker as he judges others. I would also note that, not surprisingly, Walker is not the only bigot in the school district as evidenced by the remarks of parent, Brenda Enoch (who hopefully will be blessed with gay grandchildren). Here are some story highlights:

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IRMO, SC (WIS) - The Irmo High School Principal's announced resignation over a controversial student group is already drawing national attention. Principal Eddie Walker told WIS News 10 his resignation won't take effect until June, 2009 - the end of the 2008-2009 school year. Walker says it comes after he was asked to allow the creation of a Gay-Straight Alliance club at the school.

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Tuesday Lexington School District Five issued a statement through Director of Community Services Buddy Price. It says, "The federal law known as the Equal Access Act does not permit the school to discriminate against a club based on the club's purpose and viewpoint by not allowing it to form unless the purpose of the club is unlawful." Wednesday, the district followed up with a statement from spokesperson Michelle Foster. "Attorneys have advised the school district that prohibiting the formation of this club would most certainly result in a costly lawsuit ... The only other recourse the school district would have would be to eliminate all non-curricular clubs all together."

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"We are not putting them like, 'ugh. You know you're lepers.' But we have to stand for what our foundation of our nation was about," says parent Brenda Enoch. Enoch supports Walker's decision to resign. She feels the formation of the Gay/Straight Alliance club would lower values in schools that parents have fought hard to achieve.

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Ashlei Tate, who graduated from a high school in Glorida with a Gay/Straight Alliance club, compares banning groups like the GSA to racial segregation of the past. "Everyone has equal rights. We shouldn't discriminate from what they need to do," says Ashlei Tate. "People used to make fun of and beat up gay people, just because they were different. This is actually a program to make everyone feel that they belong."

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The following are highlights from Walker's resignation letter submitted to the school division:

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On May 14, 2008, I was instructed by email to allow the formation of a Gay/Straight Alliance Club at Irmo High School. On May 15, 2008 I told Ms. Ann Pilat to allow the formation of this club for the 2008-2009 school year. Allowing the formation of this club on our campus conflicts with my professional beliefs and religious convictions.

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The formation of this club conflicts with my professional beliefs in that we do not have other clubs at Irmo High school based on sexual orientation, sexual preference, or sexual activity. In fact our sex education curriculum is abstinence based. I feel the formation of a Gay/Straight Alliance Club at Irmo High school implies that students joining the club will have chosen to or will choose to engage in sexual activity with members of the same sex, opposite sex, or members of both sexes.

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Both Faith in America and South Carolina Equality released statements in response to Walker's resignation and the ensuing publicity. Here is a portion of Faith in America's statement:

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"It is a shame that the principal at Irmo High School in South Carolina decided to place religion-based bigotry and discrimination over his former commitment to his students and staff," said Faith In America Executive Director Brent Childers."We truly believe it is unfortunate that this principal cannot see the immense harm that is caused when a social climate of rejection, condemnation and violence is justified with misguided religious belief. To make such a choice over simply allowing gay youth a forum to meet and talk, alludes to the apparent deep-seated prejudice that must exist in the religious mindset of this person.

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This is a highlight from South Carolina Equality's statement:

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"It's unfortunate that this principal is so grossly misinformed about the intent of a GSA group. This group is forming to provide support for gay, lesbian, and straight students-a reprieve from the often hostile environment in our schools. Drew continued, "Statistics on harassment and violence for gay students are astounding. Gay students face more verbal harassment and physical violence than any group of students. In fact the conditions are often tortuous. We would never allow these conditions for any other group of students in our schools." Drew said, "Four out of five gay students report that they don't know one supportive adult at school. Principal Walker further alienates these students and causes them greater harm."