Joe Quigley, teacher

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Part Three, page 2

So it was that, when contacted by the ACLU of Oklahoma, the president requested that he first be allowed to resolve the grievance before any action specific to Gay Rights be initiated. This made for common sense. What no one foresaw was that the district, finding itself in an extremely awkward position, would not know how to get out of the situation and save face. The level one hearing of the grievance went as expected with the principal backing up the reprimand on the basis that since he presented the complaint, the dean of instruction became the complainant, and that although asked to remove the poster, I clearly refused to follow the directive.

Within a few days of the reprimand, the assistant principal newly assigned to evaluate my performance sat in on one of my classes for the last remaining minutes. I had not placed anything on the bulletin board where the poster had been convinced as I was that the grievance procedure would be swift and correct, and I would within a matter of weeks be able to rehang it.

He pointed out at the end of the class that my lesson was good and that I am a good teacher, but as far as classroom atmosphere and learning environment I should have something hanging in the empty space on the bulletin board. I totally agreed with him and told him that he was right, there should be something hanging there, but someone took it.

A few days later he strongly suggested that I put something in the empty space, and I obliged him. I had a copy of an essay written by an unknown student in Los Angeles entitled, "Who Are Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered and Questioning Youth?" which I laminated and hung on the board. Without the title, it could pass as a description of any high school student. It wasn't as big as the removed poster, but I felt it would send the right message. Student response was mature. A few hours after the assistant principal passed through my classroom apparently to see if I had complied with his suggestion to hang something, a union representative came to my room requesting to see the "Homosexual" poster I had hung, carefully explaining that if I hung a poster similar to the one removed I could be jeopardizing the successful resolution of my grievance. The Assistant principal upon leaving my room earlier had called the principal who was at home and who in turn called the union complaining about the new poster. The actual poster did not fit the description the principal had passed on to the union so the representative told me there was no problem with it, but to be prepared for a little excitement. His visit was followed by one from the assistant principal who told me to take it down. I agreed that I would, but only if he put it in writing as things spoken at the school had a tendency to get changed somewhere along the line, and usually to the disadvantage of the teacher. As I thought he would, he was very careful to direct me to take down what he referred to as a "poem" dealing with the "subject matter of homosexualtiy". His letter made it clear to me that the grievance had the effect of having the administration be more specific in making sure something was clearly a directive, and that he had actually misrepresented the poster to the principal. The fact that he used the word "directed" was a clear sign that they knew thay had been wrong previously, but just did not want to admit it.

Obssessed as he was with my bulletin board, when he came to my room that December to evaluate my performance needless to say there was undue attention given my bulletin board. For the winter holidays I formed some tinsel garland in the shape of a Lambda, and hung six Christmas tree balls on it that were in the rainbow colors. Totally missing the significance of the decoration, and having no idea that the list of African-American Authors that hung on the board with its heading in the colors of the rainbow flag were all Gay and Lesbian People, he noted on my evaluation that the draping of some garland with a few balls was not sufficient. He would prefer that the board was completely covered, and that having only one-eighth of the empty space covered did not express a proper learning environment. I measured the total area of the bulletin board and subtracted the combined area of all things hanging on it and ascertained that almost forty-five percent of the board was covered. I passed this on to him pointing out also that he could not claim that only one-eighth of the blank space was covered because even if I were to endeavor to completely cover the whole board any empty space, even that the size of the head of a pin would remain one-hundred percent uncovered, or it would not be blank. I also asked if all bulletin boards in all rooms were being held to so strict a requirement of coverage, or was this only being required of me. References to my bulletin board ceased.

The last two weeks of January were Celebrate Diversity weeks, and most teachers target either one group within the school to celebrate, or more than one as they so desire. I chose all ethnic and racial groups, and further narrowed that to Gay and Lesbian members of those groups. And so it was that I had hundreds of names of Gay and Lesbian Hispanics, Asians, African-Americans, and some information on Two-Spirited Native Americans. I hung these in the hall by my door much to the chagrin of the principal who, altough piqued could not justify removal. I had after all addressed one of the concerns expressed in the reprimand. I was inclusive.

Suddenly there was a major concern about a letter-sized poster that appeared in the halls which was of an immoral nature, one that no one saw, except apparently the administrators. To eliminate any future repetitions of this, a new directive was issued, as if a student wanting to post anything immoral would pay attention to it, that declared that no poster was to hang in any hall without the express permission of the principal.

Seeing this for what it was, I immediately removed the posters from the walls outside my doors and placed them on the inside of the doors themselves. When the doors were closed, the posters were in the room. When the doors were open, however, the posters ended up in the hall.

But, as far as the actual grievance, movement was agonizingly slow.

TO BE CONTINUED

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