Time to get real

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		Time to get real - a letter from Joe Quigley to Dr Weitzelx

The following is an e-mail from Joe Quigley. Dr. William Weitzel is the chief executive officer of Oklahoma City's public schools
(Posted 3-8-01)

Dear Dr. Weitzel:
     Once again, in the aftermath of another school shooting we shake our heads, click our tongues and ask the question steeped in denial, "how could this possibly happen?". In the next few weeks we will consult experts in a field too new to have experts, theorize about causes, subject teachers to new, but impossible procedures to make us all feel comfortable, and invent new and transparent codes to let us know someone we do not know is in the building, making the naive assumption that the potential shooter will walk through morning scanning fully armed, or while having the intellegence and resources to sneak a gun into the school during the day will not be smart enough to know what a "red team meeting" after school really means.
     But we won't address the common problem in order to prevent such an
occurence.
If you look at the shootings, one thing stands out. The shooters were treated like outsiders in an environment that they had to be in everyday by law.
     These kids did not decide for themselves that they would be the outsiders, but, rather, it was decided for them by students and faculty who, being part of the majority and just like each other, assumed what they were doing was acceptable behavior because no one told them otherwise.
    Different was an excuse for ridicule.
In one of the southern schools where the students were shot as they prayed in the school's main hall our hearts went out to them because of the Rockwellian setting and because they were doing something so pure and innocent. But,what we fail to consider because it is unpleasant and ruins the picture is that these were the kids who put an article in the newspaper starting the rumor that the future shooter was "gay" knowing full well, and anticipating the reaction of other students, the treatment he would receive and the lack of correction they would get from those in charge whose previous attitudes and behaviors led these kids to believe that they could, and for a while did get away with it because they were like the majority and the ones in charge.
   Their victim was forced to handle it the best he could, which obviously would take more strength than he had, because how do you go to those who have allowed for this behaviour, or at least tacitly led the students to believe it was acceptable and would not be condemned, and ask for help or support.
     The treatment of the two shooters at Columbine was obvious, observed and allowed because they too were not like the majority to whom their ridiculers belonged.
    There are those in our schools for whom the schools exist, but we also have those who seem to be "tolerated" in an environment that they are obviously guests in.
    The neutrality of school does not truly exist for them.
My principal denies any positive role models or information for Gay and Lesbian Students for fear of the Daily Oklahoman and ministers who may be vocal, thus sacrificing these kids on the altar of comfort.
    At the Key Communicators Meetings we are told of the drop out rates while we ignore the studies and statistics related to the dropping out of our "unwanted" Gay and Lesbian Kids or those thought to be because the potential of their coming out in school might violate our personal politics, religious beliefs, or comfort zone, and don't they make it all so easy by just going away?
    We tacitly and sometimes, as in the case where I work, actively create an environment where it is painfully obvious to the student body that some kids just do not count, especially the Gay ones.
    While my principal assures me we do not teach heterosexuality, he denies putting up a poster for Women's History month that includes some prominant Lesbians preferring that I only include neutral women or acceptable biographies made so by the mention of the women's marrying men.
     While the State Standards for the Performance of Teachers states clearly that students cannot be barred from school activities on the basis of sexual orientation, my administrators invent a policy that forbids bringing someone of the same sex to the prom even if it is your sibling, and deny a students request to do so because it looks like a Lesbian date.
     Students are not blind, nor are they stupid. They see the actions of those in charge, those with the responsibility of guiding them and from whom they are to learn what is correct and acceptable behavior, and pick up their attitudes.
     We are supposed to educate.
What is needed is a strongly and directly worded non-discrimination policy as well as other policies that clearly spell out what is not acceptable and does not take for granted who is included.
     We owe it to the students. All of them
     We cannot assume that students will apply generic mincing words to all students especially if we by our example exempt students from equal treatment.
     We cannot allow the conditions to exist that give advantage to heterosexual students who are misled into believing that the school is theirs, that those that are different just merely have to be tolerated until they leave somehow. This leads some kids to believe that unacceptable behavior is acceptable which creates an environment that is extremely negative for "others", and one that leads these "others" to believe they have to deal with this alone as even the administrators are no better than the last kid who ridiculed them.
     I urge you to stand up for these kids, and not let them be sacrificed as unwilling pawns.
     I was told that doing right by these kids is what we should do, but politicians and the Oklahoman could purposely misrepresent this as promoting the "homosexual agenda" and work to defeat any future bond issue, even going so far as to attempt to cancel out the work of the Key Communicators and KIDS Committee.
     Seems to me that attitude is a little perverse. Let a student die, or sacrifice any number of kids for the sake of a bond issue? It is immoral.
      These students and their families are part of the very community whose needs we are addressing at these meetings.
      Are we lying to look good enough to pass a sham bond issue, or are we telling the truth, and including these kids as part of our schools.
     We have Gay and Lesbian, as well as Bi-Sexual and Transgendered kids in our schools.
     Let's start including them before it is too late and we have to pretend that if the worst happens we are just as surprised as the next person.
     No, we will be responsible.

Joseph M. Quigley
NW Classen H.S.

620 NW 19
OKC OK 73103
521-0215

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