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August 27, 2003
Dear Mr. Quigley,
Please know that this district does not discriminate against any student. That includes gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered students.
Sincerely,
Bob Moore,
Superintendent,
Oklahoma City Public Schools

Oklahoma City Public Schools

Oklahoma State Department of Education

ACLU of Oklahoma

ACLU: American Civil Liberties Union

PFLAG: Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays

GLSEN: Gay Lesbian and Straight Education Network

Lambda Legal

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The following are emails from Joe Quigley
(Posted 9-9-03)

(9-9-03) You may not be too keen on a long email, but you will NOT believe what you are about to read. I am going to email it in two parts. YOU MUST READ THIS. IT IS TRUE.
I know some will immediately want to storm the Bastille, but I have made a complaint and we need to see how the complaint is handled. The deadline by which it must be handled is ASAP, NOW, PRONTO!

There is a book in this. I guess I was only dreaming when i told them at the School Board meeting I was hoping that the Superintendent's letter of clarification would be the last document, not page one of volume two.

it is
Joe

 

 

(9-9-03) The reason I NOTIFIED the principal that I INTENDED to PUT UP a display for ( what I for the sake of brevity will call ) Gay History Month was in consideration of the time frame.
If the right thing were done and drama absent, the notification would not be “denied” and there would be three weeks of silence on the “issue” with the display going up quietly. But with the possible drama there was need to have the room to fight for the display and defend the nondiscrimination policy if not in its wording, its articulated intent. (08/27/03) This would cause a big unnecessary broohaha from denial through the month of October unless reality prevailed by the end of September.
My notification of intent to construct a display was passed on to the person who is now, as noted (pointedly?) by the principal in his response to my email, the person who is going to evaluate my teaching performance and that could lead on to so much. And, here she was assigned the duty to make the decision that either followed the policy and was a good one, or violated it making it necessary to test the strength of the policy. Do you see the set up? Artificially creating an adversarial relationship. Not for nothing the responsibility of the principal when it came to Gay History Month being passed to an administrator new to the building.
Face it. The Dean of Instruction, Dr. Miller, whether she “wins or loses”, whether she sees the set up or blindly buys the charade will not be warm toward me, so my evaluation could take the joy out of things. But, hey.
I previously sent a copy of the notification of my intent to have a Gay History Month display to and the response from the principal. I also responded to an email by asking that we give this person time to do the right thing as it seemed she might.
I was a little surprised when as I left school and checked my mailbox I found the following letter in it.



TO: Mr. J Quigley (note I don’t rate a full name. Not even a “Joe”)
THROUGH: Mr. Weldon Davis (initialed WD)
FROM: Terrie L. Miller, EdD (initialed TLM)
DATE: September 10, 2003
RE: OCTOBER DISPLAY NOTIFICATION

I appreciate the notification to Mr. Davis regarding a display you have planned for GLBT History Month. However, after checking the various clubs and organizations on campus who represent the diverse population of our school, I find no GLBT Organization Listed. Consequently, since Northwest Classen High School has no GLBT Organization, then it follows that no History Month display shall be permitted within classrooms or within the building.
Thank you in advance for your cooperation. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you should have questions or concerns regarding this memorandum



Now I have a few problems with this.
1) Principal Davis who at more than one meeting defended his previous acts of censorship with the line that NWC could not be the only school with an inclusive policy. It needed to be district wide. Well, the policy was not only explained in writing, but articles appeared in Newspapers and I not only emailed him a copy, but gave him a hard copy Xerox. Clearly, even a district wide policy, the one he wanted, has no weight with him. Seems to bring into doubt that excuse.
2) There has never been in past practice, nor is there anything in print articulating a policy that only displays can be put up if there is some kind of related club. And, as far as no club? Think about it. This is the school where the principal goes into a teacher’s class while he is away at lunch, removes a poster, cuts off the bottom that mentioned Fr. Mychal Judge was a Gay celibate priest, replaces the poster and leaves the room. His defense when accused of doing this and assuming he used my scissors was to point out (AHA, Gotcha!) he had borrowed the scissors from another teacher. “Yes, I shot him, officer. But I didn’t use my own gun.”
This is just the supportive kind of guy whose office you go to to tell him you want to form a Gay Club.
Back in 2000 the principal had invented the selectively applied Paragraph J.
Now we have another new policy, conveniently composed just now, for just this.
3) If there can be no History Month display, will the Community Bulletin Board plaque be removed because it was presented by individuals and not an organization? This might sound exaggeratedly alarmist, but the best is yet to come.

 

 

(9-9-03) I took the letter to Dr. Miller’s office and thought I would turn on the charm. It would be the first time we had spoken other than a first day “Hi, my name is…” and the daily perfunctory, ”how’s it going”s (Spoonful of sugar/barrel of vinegar). Dr. Miller was there and I told her I wanted to talk about the letter (it said I could at the bottom). She did not seem willing to discuss, so I pointed out that there was a whole history to this she may not be aware of (remember, she never came to speak with me. I submitted the notification on 09/05/03, so there was plenty of time between now and October, and now and a final answer). She may have been placed in the middle of something she would appreciate knowing about.
Her decision stands.
Why?
Brace yourself (even the teacher standing outside the door waiting either to speak with me or Dr. Miller could not believe this)
It is her personal feeling that there are no Gays in High schools. They might be Gay one day and then not the next. And since there are no Gays in school there is no need for a display. ( She repeated that old chestnut that basically says we are all just failed heterosexuals with a propensity for poor choices..)
Apparently all those statistics and studies, all of you who are GLBT don’t hold a candle to this woman’s personal feelings. Neither does the policy they just defined.
To quote Jerry Foshee, “CRIMINY!”
Apparently personal feelings supercede policy, even newly clarified ones.
Now, I was raised Catholic and we were the one true church. All the others were false ones. So, it could coinceivably be my personal feelings that where it says "Religion" in all the policies, they could not possibly mean all those others. So if they are not Catholic they are subject to discrimination based on their cult beliefs and practices. Take that Southern Baptist Convention.
I pointed out that if the district just clarified the nondiscrimination recently by the statement that the Oklahoma City Public Schools does not discriminate against any student, and that includes Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered students. They seem to think there might be a few.
She stood her ground.

AND THE DISTRICT THINKS THERE IS NO NEED FOR EDUCATION ABOUT GLBT PEOPLE.
Needless to say this is going to be pursued. I will be speaking with the legal department and if possible the Super.
Joe

 

Previous postings from Joe Quigley:

 

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