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Quigley reports on school board meeting


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The following are emails from Joe Quigley
(Posted 8-19-03)

(8-18-03)
GIGANTIC THANKS TO THOSE WHO SHOWED UP TONIGHT!


The actual agenda for the School Board meeting ( 08/18/03) was very short. Most of the items were routine allocations and expenditures in order to begin the school year. Two people explained plans for the new Frederick Douglas HS (yes, Douglas HS has a full name) and Eisenhower Hs. This was your MAPS for Kids people explaining part of the tax supported plan. However a third group gave a presentation on a wonderful computer learning program, but there was no need to have all its executives give little speeches along with students testimonials and a Powerpoint presentation. They went for over an hour which made the meeting unnecessarily long.
   Once that was over it was obvious this meeting was way over time as the Board president, in a freudian moment, skipped the rest of the agenda and went right for adjournment until a few people pointed out he had skipped Public Comments.
   Three of us spoke.
I had the privilege of being called on first (showing up 1 1/2 hours before the meeting to ensure a spot helped). My intention was to ask the question publicly, "is it permissible to discriminate against Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered students in the Oklahoma City Public Schools?".
    Referring to the binder of documents, I pointed out that we are not asking this question through impatience because  the documents show that we have played by the rules and have been patient since March 10, 1997, and we think 6 1/2 years is long enough to wait.
   Since I asked a question, by board policy the superintendent has about 5 days to answer me. It has to be in writing.
The possible answers?
1) yep, it is.   (are we going to accept this?)
2) of course it isn't! (so why the reluctance to let that be known)
or
3) it will be suggested legal have a look and perhaps another committee will look like we care (I have been in this since 1997. Most of these people are new at this. The ones from the past have gone, or have different positions within the district. They forget that. Stalling with a committee might look like a good new, first time trick to them, but it will be the third (documented) time this has been used to delay. And why should they even hesitate?They have 6 1/2years to find a way out of the predicament. It never crossed their minds?)

      So we need to know what we do when the answer comes in.

Jim Craig spoke as well. He pointed out that there were 30 kids in the various oversized pictures around the room. Following the studies, the Board needed to pick the 3 students among the 30 who the district will just leave behind. And once that was done, pick the two who would most likely commit suicide.
    He wants an answer to the question.

And in a funny moment "Jim Nimmo" spoke as well, expressing his fear that the reluctance to be forthright with the answer could mean that they are treating kids according to personal and religious beliefs. That is not what they are to do. He brought in Church and State separation.

So we cannot sit idly by and wait for the next bad thing and react. We need a plan, a next step depending on the answer.
A committee, or the answer that it is okay to discriminate should fill us with outrage.
If they state discrimination is out, we can find ways of working with the district to help them educate faculty and students. We become their allies because we know it won't be easy, and they will need our help.

So, what do we do?
Joe

 

 

 

 

(8-18-03) In light of some responses we have received through email to our simple question, I sent the following email to Mr. Davis, Principal of NWClassen.

Joe


Mr. Davis
You once objected to a sign in my classroom that stated, "Gay Or Straight, No one Has To Put Up With Sexual Harassment. REPORT IT" . You also removed and never returned a framed quote by Dr. Faison from 1998 which stated the same. You based this first on not having heard Dr. Faison, and then on my not being able to get a statement from him in writing that he had said that. Of course at that time he was getting ready to leave the district and, in fact, did so soon after I wrote my request.
The following is a statement from Tammy Carter (school legal counsel) regarding an inquiry about the inclusion of Gay and Lesbian Students in SchoolPolicy.

Joe
Our regulations address harassment and bullying and it is not permissible to harass or bully any student and that includes gay students.

Tammy Carter

I hope this clears up any doubt in the matter of the applicability of school policy on bullying and harassment to our Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered Students. As this is a restatement of the inclusion that existed, and obviously judging by your own experience may not be known by all faculty, staff and students, I am sure you will not object to a small, tasteful and visible notice of this school policy and its inclusiveness in my classroom.
Joseph Quigley

 

(8-19-03) The amazing thing is that this Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered thing did not just come up, nor was it dealt with 6 1/2 years ago and then dropped until now. This has been ongoing.
      The illustration that a clear policy is needed, the actions at NWClassen, have been in the press and very public.
       Board members and administrators have received hard copies of reports over the years and emails more recently. To now have to scramble to come up with an answer is ludicrous. It means they never gave a thought to this. They just ignored it. They could have used that time (6 1/2 years) to come up with a real policy or simply a CYA response.
     They didn't.
That means it did not matter to them. It means Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered students just do not matter. The phrase that kept coming up at the meeting of 08/18/03  was a variation of," as a result of the question, request, inquiry, of last year…..", and then the presentation would begin. These nonhuman, brick and mortar concerns were addressed in a year's time because they were considered important. The clear policy including GLBT Students just did not merit their time or attention.
      This is outrageous.
And now we wait for some answer from the superintendent. I just hope his response in accordance with Board policy comes a little swifter and more timely than the lack of response to, or even an acknowledgement of the reception of my three emails requesting a meeting to bring him up to speed this past summer as that was the most recent stall to clarifying that school policy on nondiscrimination applies to the GLBT Students.
         I have found over the years as a teacher that when a student cheats it might be his or her first time so they think they are clever and original, but it might be the thousandth time that trick was attempted in the teacher's experience. To me, it seems that as some of the players in this question are new, or have arrived at various times into the arena since 1997, they think their idea of a stall is new because they are. But, I have the documents, and I have been the one constant from 1997, and so have seen the whole process from day one on. They simply repeat a stall without knowing or caring if it has been tried before, and they are unconsciously insulting as they assume those of us who have been involved or who have been monitoring this are too stupid to notice.
   The saddest thing is that when the question, "Is it permissible to discriminate against Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, or Transgendered Students in the Oklahoma City Public Schools?" was asked, they couldn't give an answer then, but called on the Board Policy that the superintendent needs to respond. They couldn't answer a question about discrimination related to students in the district, and they had no immediate response after 6 1/2 years.

This is unbelievable
Joe

 

 

Previous postings from Joe Quigley:

 

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