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Support GayOKC.com! Donate here!		 Teacher alleges anti-GLBT vandalism done by NW Classen employee

The following is an email from Joe Quigley
(Posted 1-25-02)

This week is BROTHERHOOD WEEK at NWClassen. It is a celebration of our
diversity.
One of the week's activities is the door decoration contest.
     Students decorate classroom doors- one per classroom- competing for the
best deseign based on diversity. In classrooms with two doors, even if both
are decorated, only one can be judged.
     Knowing that any diversity event, or celebration, would be incomplete as
students, and unfortunately teachers, would overlook the inclusion of Gay and
Lesbian people in this, and as only one of my two doors would be eligible for
judging I hung a self-made and laminated poster on my back door listing the
names of famous Gays and Lesbians with pictures when I could find them and a
notation of what they did for civilization.       On the morning of 1/24/02
when I opened my classroom before the kids entered the building I saw that
someone had cut out the picture of one of those included, leaving an obvious
hole.
     In a week devoted to inclusion and understanding, someone had vandalized
the poster in an exercise of censorship.
     This is not the first time this has been done.
There was the poster removal by administrators in October of 1999, the
removal by the principal of both things hung and those neither hung, nor
intended to be the week before students returned for the 2001-2002 school
year, and most recently the removal of an article from the Advocate about Gay
and Lesbian heroes and victims of September 11, 2001 by a custodian with
nothing being done by the administration to discipline the custodian that I
am aware of, or tto have my property returned. 
     This last would lead a custodian or anyone else to believe such an
action was permissable, and may have resulted in someone committing the
present action.
     I believe this is yet more proof of the need for specifically inclusive
language in policies and anti-discrimination statements, and in-services for
Teachers.
    Would someone have been so confident doing this to any of the other
posters hung during this week? What if pictures of certain races or ethnic
groups were removed from other door displays by those who disapprove?
   The following is the letter I sent the Principal on this.

I am filing a formal complaint.
     In preparation for BROTHERHOOD WEEK, I consulted with the sponsor of the
BLACK HISTORY CLUB and ascertained that, as my classroom had two doors, it
was permissable to decorate both with only one being eligible for judging-
the one done by the students.
     I, therefore, hung a poster containing the names and pictures of famous
Gay and Lesbian people through history on the rear door of my room to ensure
that diversity was properly inclusive.
     This morning upon entering  my room at 7:10 a.m. I noticed that one of
the pictures had been cut out of the poster I constructed on my own time and
laminated at my own expense.
     I had left school at 2:45 p.m. on January 23, 2002 after students were
out of the building, so this would have to have been done by an adult.
     At our meeting with the mediator held last November you told the
mediator that the article from the ADVOCATE which gave the biographies of Gay
and Lesbian victims and heroes of September 11, 2001 that I had hung on my
door to offset the omission of this information on various broadcast reports
and in the print media had been removed by a custodian, but did not mention
what disciplinary steps were taken as a result of this theft of my private
property.
     Whether or not anyone disagrees with such a poster, or has a problem
with the names and pictures of those included, it does not justify the
vandalism. If anyone had a question, or even an objection about the inclusion
of anyone on the list, the proper thing would have been to have dialogue.
     This is the second time someone has taken it upon him or herself to
remove material from my room.
     Apparently they feel this is acceptable.
I am, therefore, calling for this to be investigated, and proper action being
taken. Also, I am curious as to why nothing was done in the first case, and
why things removed from my room either by you, or the custodian have yet to
be returned.

 

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