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Joe Quigley - A meeting with the principal


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The following consists of the content of 2 emails from Joe Quigley which have been combined for clarity
(Posted 10-5-02)

(Thursday, October 3) Okay, I have held my tongue and email hoping things would brighten. But here it is four days into Gay and Lesbian History month and the principal has stalled any decision about my hanging anything. He first went to the Social Studies Department so he could blame them. Then he brought in the Faculty Advisory Committee whom he  traditionally ignores but now suddenly  finds essential for this decision, and in another compromise "effort" found a way to stall that as well.
How many other teachers have to go to another department and the Faculty Advisory Committee to get permission to hang things in their room. Do the Asians, Blacks, Hispanics or any other group have to go through these gymnastics to present students with positive role models that apply to them.
Hell, no.
JUST THE GAY AND LESBIAN ONES

So, here for your edification is a section of our last meeting which I taped and am finally getting transcribed.....VERY slowly.
It is long, but stick with it and you will see what the attitude and bigotry I have been dealing with. I know the principal reads GAYOKC.COM to see if he's there, so, Mr. Principal, this is you in the raw.

N>B> I am embarrassed to say that although I would like to wax eloquent at all meetings, emotions, nervousness and frustration do take their toll, so my unedited transcript is not always a shining moment.

Joe Quigley

TRANCRIPTION

D= Davis (principal)
U= Union Representative (Ed)
Q= Me

Q: Father Mychal Judge. That's a very questionable thing that happened with his little biography.
D: I'll tell you exactly how that happened. On that one I came back to your room seeking information to see if you still wanted to still post anything up post (you will notice when you read the rest that this is a slightly different version of his earlier account and motivation from removing the other bios. You will see that in that version he waited for me to go to him) I found that on there. Also I found which I shared with Mr. Allen the note where you said that you were going  to go ahead and put it up, and if I wanted to take it down you were willing to whatever it was (again. I gave him the memo through his in box in his secretary's office, so he didn't find it, and I stated if he felt the need to give me a reprimand I would be honored to be reprimanded for acknowledging Fr. Judge. I did not say in that memo that he was welcome to remove it) And so I took it down and it said something to the effect of, something about his being a celibate Gay priest, I don't remember exactly what it was. Well, first of all I thought that was rather insensitive on your part since, the fact you we Catholics who are running  around already sensitive about the issue of pedophilia and all this other stuff
Q: Whoa, whoa. Gay is not pedophilia
D: No, no
Q: I resent that
D: No, it had to do with sex
Q: No, it had to do with being a
D: Okay, I thought that…..….
.Q: a priest in the Catholic church has to be celibate. It mentioned in the article that he was a celibate priest which meant that in spite of his sexual orientation just like a heterosexual priest he honored his vows.
D: As far as you know
Q: well I'm not going to question
D: As far as you know. Is that not correct? As far as you know
Q: As far as anybody knows
D: As far as you know
Q: Father Mychal Judge is a celibate Gay priest, or was up until his death.
D: All right. As far as you know
Q: He was also a member of Dignity USA which is a Catholic outreach program for Gay and Lesbian…
D: As far as you know. So were all of those others who had been, ah, since that time have been pointed a finger at. Right? Anyway I don't want to get into that particular issue
Q: What do you mean by that
D: His having had sex with children
Q: What does Fr. Mychal Judge have to do with people having sex with children?
D: It does not. That's what I'm saying. As far as you know. As far as anyone knew these other folks didn't until the dam broke and all this information…
(did you follow that?)
Q: I think we are confusing issues. What does his celibacy have to do with the priests who molested children.
D: All right. The issue is you went ahead and put it up
U: The issue Joe brought up was how did the information about Fr. Judge end up being changed?
D: Oh, yeah. Actually in his posting (here he held up a copy of a posting from gayokc.com) he indicated that I got into his drawer, used his staple pullers and then I got his scissors which is not correct even though he went ahead and posted it. I had two teachers who were there when I went and borrowed their scissors, and I cut that part off, I put it back up. Wasn't it there when you got back up?
Q: Yes.
D: Okay. So Fr. Mychal Judge was back there
Q: As long as he appeared heterosexual
U: I have a question. Was the Fr. Judge Material not up with this other? (it was)
D: I don't remember ever seeing it. That doesn't mean it was or it wasn't.
Q: It was. Just under Mr. Keohane
D: Okay, but anyway. Yes. And course you already plasted  this all over the internet, he's inferred.
Q: I got plasted all over television in 1999. This is my outlet
D: Hey, grow up out of 1999, this is the year 2002.
U: Gentlemen.
Q: Undo the damage that was done in 1999 when I was all over the news, and then I'll give it up.
D: Here's is what..
Q: You never dealt with that. You have never dealt with the fact when somebody called a parent and slandered me on television. You never dealt with that yet you are the administrator and it was one of your administrators that did that. And it was never dealt with. This is my way of dealing with it.
D: Is that administrator still here?
Q: Yes. Because none of the administrators has changes except Buck and it wasn't him
D: Well, you are wrong
Q: Well he wasn't in on it.
D: You're wrong
Q: So you do know who called and yet you did nothing
D: I'm saying, Mr. Quigley, That if you know who it was, if it wasn't Mr. Jenkins , I don't know who it was Cause it sure wasn't going to be Mr. V.
Q: It should have been somebody that you should have dealt with it. It would have been very easy to find out who, and dealt with that violation of my civil and contractual rights. It was never dealt with so I am dealing with it the best way I can. I'm trying to get my face back
D:(laughter)
U: Let me make a point. We are dealing with a lot of stuff that's happened over the last few years. We can try to go blow by blow and try to correct all those past, whether they were transgressions or perceived transgressions, or we can, maybe an easier way is to start fresh. Start anew and try to get a better working relationship. We got old issues here that keep popping up that to me confuse the current issues.
Q: Why can't I put anything up for Gay History Month
U: What I would like to do is address the here and now and not bring up the old stuff cause the old stuff isn't going to be changed. It happened, it may have been bad stuff, but it happened and let's start from right now and try to get some things accomplished. Some of the things you are interested in.
Q: Right
U: That Mr. Davis tells me he could allow some of those things to be done but who, we can't ever get to them because we are arguing about all this old stuff.
Q: its interesting to say that but when you have to deal with the games. For example, if the offense was hanging a poster without permission, and this is what I am dealing with,
U: Had you received permission.
Q: if that were the case, and somebody, whoever, entered the room (remember, Davis already told me he had cut the Gay reference off the bio) and the Mychal Judge thing was up, wasn't the whole thing in violation? Why was only one section taken off, and the rest left up
U: Good point
Q: there is not a problem with what, the fact that the stuff was hung, the fact was you don't like the material , otherwise the whole Mychal Judge biography would have been taken down, and it would be in that pile (he had all the removed bios on his desk) 
But it only, And I am going to have to say it, "the disgusting" thing about celibacy and and touching, wherever you got that from, that was offensive, I don't care priest, me anybody. That was totally offensive, and irrelevant, but the only thing taken out was that he was a Gay celibate priest and a member of Dignity NY. If the offense was there, the whole biography should have come down.

 

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