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GSA begins at NW Classen


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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
Click here for full text

Oklahoma City Public Schools

Oklahoma State Department of Education

ACLU of Oklahoma

ACLU: American Civil Liberties Union

Human Rights Campaign

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 9-18-03)

(9-17-03) I was talking to a friend on the phone and mentioned the YGLA flier vs conscience thing.
Hey, people call me. They ask questions. I give thorough answers.
This came up.
Graduation is going to be at the COX Convention Center this June. There are a few hotels around there that have bars in them. Very adult. It is also right at BrickTown, an "adult entertainment district".
Face it, other than Chileno's where parents will take the little ones up to a decent hour most everything else there is liquor and dancing related.
There's the Varsity, The Brewery and that multi-story building with a few different types of clubs and bars in it. Very adult. Especially when our 8:00 pm graduation ceremony lets out after 9:00 pm.
Then there are those bars further down. Imagine the horrors these children will see as people relax, spend a night with friends and significant others, may even show a discreet sign of affection, may just be regular people. But, they are in BrickTown.They are sex crazed, and yet we bring the students there. And they may even see their teachers at such places as the Varsity debauching themselves. That's what adults do at night. We all debauch.
This may cause a problem as we will be making our kids go to a school event right there, near Brick Town. And we know that when the COX empties the families will not be rushing out to the outskirts of town to flee BrickTown, they will head right to it and we will have forced them for convenience to bring their own children right into an "adult entertainment district".
If not letting the students know that YGLA exists because of a problem of conscience with where it is, an "adult entertainment district", wouldn't it be consistent with this conscience thing to object to where graduation is, at an "adult entertainment district"?
I know the graduation thing is ludicrous, but no more than the YGLA thing.
Might this be another example of the district's need to open its mind and educate its teachers and administors about GLBT concerns, and allow teachers to offer the information the students may need? Seems a little lopsidedly insensitive to me.
The only difference between the two areas in question is that one is predominantly Gay, and must, therefore, be the pit of hell with all those stereotypes that are used to harm students and teens in general apparently gathered enmass, while the other is predominantly heterosexual and is, therefore, wholesome without fault and very Disney.
The only difference is the predominant sexual orientation of the patrons. The debauchery and the filth imagined is in the mind of the imaginer.
But, policy be damned.
Joe Quigley

 

 

(9-18-03) I was going through my desk when I found a pamphlet for PFLAG Oklahoma City. I xeroxed it and submitted it to the principal for the Community Bulletin Board.
I saw no reason for it to be rejected as PFLAG meets at the Unitarian church on 13 street which is close to both Mesta Park and Heritage Hills as well as St Anthony's Hospital, and backs into Villa Teresa which, unless the Catholic church is really going to hell in the proverbial handbasket, would rule out its being in an "adult entertainment district".
I got it back from Dr.Miller with an attached note saying that she would love to put it up, but the meeting dates were vague and the pamphlet out of date.
I know that the local PFLAG chapter is small, and does not have budget in the true sense of the word, and that as modest as the income may be for those who attend the meetings I always manage with my salary to bring down the monetary worth of the group when I attend, so it is conceivable that this is the only pamphlet and it was open ended anyway.
The pamphlet states toward the bottom that PFLAG meets the third Thursday of each month starting March 30, 2003. I did research consulting AOL's calendar, one I got somewhere with a lot of Family Circus style drawings and motivational sayings, a calendar from a daily planner, and for good measure, and as a tip of the hat to diversity, the Black Men Of The Big City 2004 edition.
Although I could have limited myself to just seeing if every month since March 30, 2003 had a third Thursday, I went that extra mile and checked back to 2002, and ahead (very slowly around December in the Big City 2004 calendar) all the way into 2005. I cross referenced each calendar for both the current year, the past and the next, and always arrived at the same conclusion that each month had a third Thursday falling conveniently between both the third Wednesday and the third Friday, respectively, with the only possible confusion being caused by the inconsistency of the numbers, vis-a-vis the third Thursday in September 2003 is 18 while in 2004 it will be 16.
I borrowed some "white-out" from the secretary and removed "beginning March 30, 2003" in case that was the problem and resubmitted it.
My only hope is that it is not arrived at that since there are no Gay students in high school, the parents actually have no kids and there can not be any friends of the non-existent.
Joe Quigley

 

 

(9-18-03) Ms Carter,
Recently you sent me an email which in deference to your telling me you felt betrayed as emails sent to me from you were appearing on the internet I did not "publish".That was a mistake and I believe a betrayal toward me.
In that memo you said Dr.Miller was staying within the law.
So explain this.
Two years ago a person from off campus was recruiting people to a christian club. The objection was filed and the Equal Access Law was presented to the principal (documentation and witnesses.) Over the past two years Mr. Davis has been made fully aware of the Equal Access Law on a number of occasions having it re-explained and why it is, as well as what could result from its being violated.
According to the EA students must initiate and run a non-curriculum club and are responsible for finding a sponsor. The non-curriculum clubs cannot be started by faculty, staff, administrators or outside agents. THEY MUST BE STUDENT INITIATED
MR. DAVIS KNOWS THIS. And as he will attest, he does not lie, so he cannot deny this.
DR. Miller spoke with me yesterday in what was presented as an honest discussion during which I told her I was glad the school is supportive of a Gay/Straight Alliance, but cautioned that she follow the Equal Access Act so that the club could not be disallowed at a later date on a technicality. She assured me that as the Title IX coordinator she was familiar with title IX which was rather irrelevant as these are two separate laws. At any rate, she insisted she did not need to become familiar with the law.
In violation of that law she approached a student aboutstartin a GSA, declared herself the temporary sponsor and called an organizational meeting. She ran the beginning of the meeting before turning it over to the students, and then after they wrote their constitution she took it home to type.
Although she pulled one student aside after the meeting ( which is an abuse of that student as she could say anything she wanted yet retain deniability putting that student in a very bad situation if the student were to pass on unwitnessed conversations), she may have assumed no one could hear. Students are not jaded, and they trust those they do not know are most eager to betray them for their own benefit.
Apparently Mr. Davis informed Dr.Miller that the only way they could begin a GSA was if she were the sponsor. Another violation of the Equal Access Act, and one that Mr.Davis is fully cognizant of. The principal cannot appoint the sponsor, nor can he add any restriction to any one club not given to others.
If someone opposed to such a club were to protest its existence and the club is found to have been formed in violation of the Equal Access Act, it can be terminated with no recourse.
MR. DAVIS KNOWS THE LAW. MR. DAVIS HAS HAD IT EXPLAINED TO HIM AND HAS RECEIVED COPIES OF IT. YET HE VIOLATED IT IN THIS VERY SENSITIVE CASE.
These students were thrilled that Dr. Miller was so supportive, but they were not aware that she was violating the law. Also, they did not know she was getting directions from Mr. Davis, AND THE VIOLATIONS ON BOTH THEIR PARTS COULD BE THE CLUBS UNDOING.
This is again one of those situations where the appearance is given of total support while the same people who APPEAR to have the welfare of the students at heart have insured they can terminate something with impugnity.
THEY BROKE THE LAW AND IN SO DOING HAVE JEAPORDIZED THE FUTURE OF THE CLUB.
NOW WILL THE DISTRICT DO SOMETHING, OR WILL IT KEEP ITS HEAD IN THE SAND?

If a complaint is ever filed against the existence of the GSA in the future, I think it would be incumbent on the district and the legal staff to remember Dr.Miller declined the opportunity to review the law so as not to break it, saying she did not have to as she was well informed, and Mr. Davis flat out ignore it (documents and witnesses) in spite of it being a topic in our many meetings.
Unless this clever set up was an advised situation.
joe quigley

 

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