Joe Quigley, teacher

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Part Five
Written by Joe Quigley
(Posted 12-8-00)
Part One / Part Two / Part Three / Part Four

Totally unaware
of the maelstrom that was raging, I went about my duties the beginning of the next week until that Wednesday morning when, as I entered the office to sign in, the principal shouted that I was there, and swiftly, he, the assistant principal and the union building representative whisked me into his office. The principal was a little hot under the collar and asked me if I knew what his evening had been like the night before.

It seems that one of the members of the faculty advisory committee had read the packet from the Friday before, and had gone to a pastor of a nearby church, who then spoke to his congregation and other pastors about the course on homosexuality being taught at the school and a survey that had been taken of the students that was sympathetic toward Gay and Lesbian people. There apparently were prayer meetings over the last few nights for the redemption of the school, and calls to the office to discontinue the course and fire the teacher. The school secretaries had no idea what was going on, as no such course, survey, or teacher existed. But the calls were many and vehement.

The evening before I was whisked into the office, a group of ministers had shown up at the principal's home to speak with him and try to bring him back to Jesus, and he was mad at me because of this. I could only but point out to him that the person at whom he should be directing his anger was the faculty advisory committee member who brought this to his or her pastor before it was dealt with by the committee, misrepresenting it as a done deal, thereby causing the furor. I was within my rights as a teacher to bring any topic to the attention of the faculty advisory committee, but no members should take it upon themselves to bring this to the public before discussion. It was a fine example of the very same attitude he had exhibited in regard to the History Month poster, overreaction based on little knowledge and understanding, with no room for hearing anything from those unlike himself. Here were these people, with no investigation, demanding certain things based only on the possible connection with things Gay or Lesbian and doing so in very uninformed public displays.

Toward the end of that day I was called again to the office. This time the principal was a little more subdued. He had just spoken to the pastor and had filled him in on the way things really were, and the pastor had apologized for his overreaction being a little embarassed that he and others went off without investigation. He was going to contact all those whom he had previously contacted to explain the mistake, and the faculty advisory committee member had agreed to call all the people she had contacted and explain her misrepresentation. The principal, however, did not feel a formal reprimand for her damaging conduct was necessary, in light of her agreement to make those calls.

Then the principal brought up the grievance and his hope that we could resolve it all now as he slid some papers over to me. The union had informed me that a resolution to the grievance would not be acceptable if everything negative was not removed from my file. The union would also have to get me to accept two conditions. First I would agree to stick to the curriculum, which I had always done and which, therefore, being required of all teachers would not be a stumbling block for me. And second, I would agree to adhere to the provision in the faculty handbook about the hanging of posters. As this provision dealt only with posters to be hung in the halls, it too was not a stumbling block. Knowing that this might not be the language to which the union agreed, I called the union president, found this was the acceptable language, a previous draft having been returned to the attorneys as totally unacceptable. Also, the union had required that the principal send a memo to all teachers in general terms reminding them to stay on curriculum and to follow the handbook. And so, on September 20, 2000 the reprimand that had been placed in my file was rendered null and void, and anything negative related to the poster was expunged. I was also given a classroom.

But the games did not end.

The grievance was settled on September 20, but I was handed a memo regarding bulletin boards dated September 14, 2000 and addressed to all faculty and staff. Although it referred to the Facutly handbook section on the "Posting of Bills" , it had an added paragraph that was to be considered added to the handbook. This new paragraph, dated and addressed in such a way as to give the impression that I and all other faculty and staff were aware of it at least six days before I signed the resolution papers, now dictated that before hanging any posters in the classroom a teacher must first ask permission of the principal, and that he would only approve those posters that were directly related to the curriculum. Again, this was a transparent ruse for eliminating any Gay and Lesbian related posters, especially as I was the only one in receipt of the memo, and it was dated to appear as having already been released before I signed off on the grievance resolution.

In the spirit of the resolution, toward the last few days of September, in anticipation of Gay and Lesbian History Month, I wrote a letter to the principal requesting permission to hang posters related to the topic. His reply was as expected, a refusal to allow it couched in education-babble about preferring more than the "one-dimensional" approach to which posters were by nature limited and the fear that information without education would result in reactionary behavior as there was no forum for give and take. He did suggest that I work with my department to see if they would like to come up with an educational approach that he and the dean of instruction could help undertake. After all, we do want to be inclusive, not exclusive. In the meantime, if I knew of any students who needed counselling, I could refer them to our crisis counselor.

This last suggestion was addressed in a letter I sent him wherein I pointed out that it was an insult to Gay and Lesbian Students to imply that their only need was for counseling, and how dismissive of them that was.

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