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The following is
an email from Joe Quigley, sent Monday, March 4
(Posted 3-5-02)
Today at 1:00 we
presented the bulletin board to Mr. Davis, principal
of
NWClassen. He seemed gracious enough about it. He was
aware that it was a
gift, and that reprersentatives of those who donated
it would be in
attendance, but he was not aware that there would be
a "gift of" plate on it.
Rightly, or wrongly, I left that part out.
As those in attendance probably noticed
he is a nice guy in the general
sense, but when it came to things Gay and Lesbian he
had some problems.
Perhaps he is over that now as those in attendance
were not necessarily the
stereotypes he might assume is the rule, and we do
turn out to be pretty nice
people.
He suggested I store the board in
my classroom which at first seemed like
a neat idea as the students would be able to see the
plaque, but on second
thought the past experience of things disappearing
had me take it to a place
from which a homophobe could not take it.
The next step is to install it,
and that is up to the district's work
order schedule. I will see if there is anything I can
do to move that along.
It would really be foolish to try the
old stall tactic so the letter of
the intent has been carried out, but the fulfillment
is postponed as if
people are too stupid to notice that. The best thing
would be to get it up
right away so that that impression is not given. I am
sure most of us are
familiar with the stall tactic.
It has stood in good stead before.
What is left now is to make the
language of the District's various
policies inclusive, but it certainly will not take
all that much time. You
can only be provably reluctant to make the safety and
inclusion of GLBT
Students obvious to all faculty and staff thoughout
the district so long
before the accumulated documentation will reveal a
too obvious pattern of
this which could place the district in a no win
situation if it ever faced
litigation. There is no real plea of doing the best
they could when the
documents show they chose not to for the last 5 years
(the anniversary of the
first simple request for an inservice is March 11).
So, the faculty has been
directed at NWClassen that GLBT students are
covered in all policies where the word "student"
is used, and the principal
has covered his nethers not only by making the policy
clear, but by the
compromise of and the acceptance of the bulletin
board leaving those in the
higher levels vulnerable as they are aware of the
need to address this issue,
make policies that are plain and not open to
interpretation, but seem
reluctant to actually do it.
It would just take typing two
words (sexual orientation) at the end of
most policies. How hard is that?
So step one in the growth of
NWClassen (and hopefully the district) has
been done. Since we are now a presence at the school
as the bulletin board
bears a plaque proclaiming our existence, and people
showed up in person to
see it done, we have to continue working for our GLBT
students as word of
this will get out and the visit by GLBT people will
be talked about, as it
already has been within minutes of the guests
departure.
We are in the schools now, and that is a
good thing for all students GLBT,
or straight.
Joe Quigley
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postings from Joe Quigley:
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