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Joe Quigley - NW Classen Update: Sept 6, 2002


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The following is an email from Joe Quigley
(Posted 9-6-02)

What can I say?

The principal of NWClassen is redefining the purpose of the Community Bulletin Board to suit his own agenda.
    When proposing the Bulletin Board during the mediation sessions last spring as a form of compromise, the principal stated it was for announcing  OKC community activities outside of the school that would be of interest to high school students.
    He is now modifying that by claiming anything Gay related must be on that bulletin board, and in no other place in the building. This new post-facto purpose of the bulletin board eliminates having anything Gay-Positive in classrooms, the library, or any of the other bulletin boards or diplay cases elsewhere in the building.
     As for the Social Studies Department's hoped for Gay and Lesbian History Month display, it has to go on that bulletin board, and that is the extent of inclusion. Meanwhile no similar restriction has been placed on other groups to which students belong (ethnic, racial, political), even certain social  ones from off campus.
    The pure purpose for the Bulletin Board has been defiled by its new restrictive application to a specific group within the NWClassen community. And, the insult has a double edge, First to do this is simply just acceptable, and, second, Gay and Lesbian students have no choice but to accept this discriminatory treatment as the natural order of things.
    Did you know I was directed to cease my "advocacy" to the point of losing academic freedom in order to not be able to speak openly and favorably about Gay contributions to literature among other things?
    And to defy a directive is to be insubordinate which becomes grounds for dismissal. In effect the denial of positive information given when appropriate in a classroom setting by someone willing to do it and not pretend Gay people don't exist, or tacitly allow the stereotypes and misinformation to stand uncorrected, is guaranteed by threat of dismissal. To silence you, we have to threaten to dismiss you.
    No censorship there!
So, while groups like Campus for Christ and campus Impact (another so called "christian" group) can have information not only on the Community Bulletin Board, but in other places throughout the building, positive Gay information is restricted to just the board.
     The only offered justification is that Gay and Lesbian History Month is an off campus celebration, ignoring the fact that there are students on campus for whom this information is very relevant.
     I am often asked why I often view the outwardly 'generous' acts and words of the principal with a jaundiced eye. When these sorts of games are played by EDUCATORS, the dispensers of information, these games that are based on the demeaning insulting of the intelligence of the GLBT Community, from our youngest to our oldest,  one cannot but be suspicious.
     You will hear it said by him that the principal supports the forming of a Gay club. I would like to believe he does, and that it is based on what is best for GLBT Kids.
But, What he is presently calling a GSA was actually a proposal for a generic tolerance club that would not deny membership to anyone not even Gay Kids. All clubs are like that (especially if you are in the closet), but they do not address the needs that a real GSA would. AND, it would be a travesty if the only way kids could get any information is if they joined a club, if a club actually forms, but if they are shy and uncertain,or if  there is no interest in a formal club, they cannot get information. So the failure to start a club for whatever reason will end the opportunity to get information needed by GLBT kids that is so conveniently located on campus for their straight peers.
    Putting all the eggs in one basket just does not sit well with me.
"see, Mr. Quigley? kids did not form a club (my issue has always been the availability of information anyway. I don't know when he fixated on a club), therefore you have a non issue. The information is neither sought, nor allowable."
And the quiet kids get nothing. and we return to the fifties and the GLBT kids to second class standing.
Wasn't this how it was before Stonewall, and why many people may have made the mistakes that ruined their lives, but wouldn't have if they were allowed to have gotten the right information ?
    If any student is interested in forming a GSA and comes to me, I have been instructed to send the student to him. I am TOO militant (like women were pushy, and blacks, uppity). Yet I am open, I have books, know resources in the community, could always avail myself of you all to lend you expertise in this, but it would be better to have someone not as vocal.
      We are supported so long as we stay quiet. I am often asked even by those who would be horrified if they thought Ieven remotely thought they were not supportive, "Don't you think you would get a lot more if you were quieter?"

On that note.....AAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH

joe

 

 

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