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Joe Quigley - NW Classen Update: Oct 12, 2002


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The following are emails from Joe Quigley
(Posted 10-12-02)

(Thursday, October 10) May be the bigots have won.
During the month of September, I went through the ritual of asking the principal for permission to hang a display for Gay and Lesbian History month. As you may recall he had invented Paragraph J which requires ALL teachers to request permission to hang anything in their rooms, but few do, and the principal does not give a care because it is rather obvious that there are quite a few things hanging all over the place, and he lacks the same enthusiasm to have those removed as he does for anything Gay related.
   I made the request on September 3, and included the discription of the display as having the names of famous GLBT people, along with books by, for and about GLBT Youth and a few books on GLBT History.
   I think his NEVER approving anything related to GLBT positive information even though I follow Paragraph J is a clear indication that its purpose is to give him censorship power which he is only too eager to exercise. If his motivation were based on sound reason and the good of students, I would accept that, but I think it is abundantly clear based on the Father Mychal Judge segment of our most recent meeting, it is based on a perverse attitude toward GLBT people and the foolish and uneducated notion that Gay=Sex. What does this say about his real attitude toward our GLBT students.
   On September 4 he responded in a memo saying that he had referred my request to the Social Studies Department for their consideration, a move that even members of the department knew was censorship by proxy as a large number of its members are coaches with a track record that would in no way indicate to anyone who thinks that they would be in favor of this. He also mentioned that I could use the Community Bulletin Board as that was its purpose, a clear rewriting of its true purpose.
    I followed this with a memo pointing out that this department had no history of doing monthly  displays, had never expressed an interest in any such displays, and if this was referred because of the historical nature of the display, would I as an English teacher be able to put up a literary display.
    No response. Not even to my question why, if Paragraph J stated that teachers "shall ask and receive permission", I had asked But had not received permission. As we all know from elementary school Grammar classes, SHALL means it will happen.
    This was followed by my memo requesting permission to advertise the possibility of a GSA in which he admitted in a response written on a copy of that memo that there had been two "christian" groups who had come on campus to ask for a moderator and to recruit members.
   Now here is an interesting development. I have kept people including adminstrators of the district informed of all goings-on as I send these emails to 900 NKlein along with everyone else. They should be aware of what is happening, but the silence is deafening. They are the dogs that did not bark. At the Fr. Judge meeting, the principal agreed to a compromise for Gay and Lesbian History Month. Since students may not be aware of the possibility of a Gay/Straight Alliance on campus we would make an announcement that  if students want information on a GSA they could come to me to get it. After that,they would be required if they wanted a GSA to follow the established procedures, unlike those two "christian"groups that did not have to, one of which, by the way, bragged to the faculty at the meeting where they spoke that they were being allowed to do this by the district.
     The reason students may not be aware of the possibilty of a GSA is that, perhaps not having a computer at home and having to rely on those at school, they cannot access the appropriate pages as GLSEN, PFLAG and Student Pride are labelled sex and are, therefore, filtered. Campus For Christ, Fellowship of Christian Athletes and Campus Impact are not.
     I went to the Student Pride page, the youth section of GLSEN and copied much of the wording of the aim and purpose of a GSA from it, and submitted a draft of an announcement to the principal. The man is a master of obfuscation and impediment. He rewrote the memo, taking out what he claimed was awkward language. So, the purpose, " to help create a safe and accepting environment for all students regardless of sexual orientation by addressing issues of harassment, discrimination and bias based on misinformation", became " to help create a safe and accepting environment for all students by addressing issues of harassment, discrimination and bias based on misinformation", "Sexual Orientation" was removed. He kept the name Gay/Straight Alliance, but made its purpose overly general. His next piece of slight of hand and obstructionism was to include a sentence mentionoing that October was Gay and Lesbian History Month promoted by the American Federation of Teachers.
    He faxed this to the AFT office where it was rightly pointed out that AFT was not a part of this. Their inclusion is very suspect as this is a matter related specifically to this one school, and it would appear he was attempting to put AFT in a very awkward postion. First because conservative members would be a little angered by this, and if they were to leave the union it would be weakened (one needs to know that at one time there was competition between AFTand the Oklahoma Education Association for postion of the official Bargaining Unit for teachers, and OEA of which the principal was once president, lost out. Also, the union has been very supportive of me as a member because of the contractual violations, not the GLBT issue, and this could be a way of getting back. Petty revenge). And, second,  he was able to present to me that AFT opposed the announcement, and this allowed him to delay, if not totally squash it.
    He then called the Superintendent who he claimed did not want the GSA to get special treatment, and required that the GSA follow the established procedure. Just as the Two "chritian" groups had? To do this, according to the principal, the superintendent wanted at least two students' names added to the announcement. The principal came to me for two names.
    The purpose of the GSA is to create safe place, and I thought this giving of names went against that. I wrote to the principal stating that the purpose of the announcement was to make it known that information was available, after which, once they got it, students could decide whether or not they wanted a club. Under the present climate, students may not want their names right out their, and this request shows a total lack of understanding of GLBT students, needs and conditions. Gay people have a history of bad results from naming names, and here, according to the principal, the superintendent wanted me to OUT at least two kids on the PA system and set them up for possible harm,
      How callous! Do we have a problem here.
I wrote my objection to supplying names to the principal, pointing this out,as well as pointing out that two other groups were started without the inclusion of any student names.
    I have yet to receive a reply. That was on October 1. The announcement has yet to be made, and other than the words "October is Gay and Lesbian History Month" written in the top, right hand corner of my chalk board there is no Gay and Lesbian History Month at NWClassen. The principal reads GAYOKC.COM, so I am sure, once he reads this I will be directed to remove the written announcement and will be scolded for my impertinance and effrontary.
   Censorship wins. And the principal, while putting every obstacle in the way, by using the Social Studies Dept., AFT, the Faculty Advisory Committee (which he traditionally ignores, but now suddenly finds necessary to decide on the request for Gay and Lesbian History month. His bluff being called, they referred it back to him knowing full well he was using them) and the Superintendent, he can appear to be so very supportive while it is everyone else who is the bad guy.
    So at NWClassen, there is no Gay and Lesbian History Month.
Yet the district continues to claim it educates ALL students according to their needs.
Joe Quigley

 

 

(Thursday, October 10) I have sent the following to Dr. Weitzel


Dear Dr. Weitzel
     Long before I first requested that the District have in services for teachers about the needs of Gay and Lesbian Kids just as it had for all other groups to which our students belonged, I did my research. I read many reports and studies, spoke to many GLBT organizations and contacted anyone I could who could furnish me with facts and figures so that my request would have a sound base.
     One would assume that other educators would have paid attention to the information passed on so that their responses, positive or negative, would also have a sound base.
    But the first objection was that in spite of the importance of such a workshop, vague "local Norms" would not allow it. These being, I would imagine, political, religious and pro-Daily Oklahoman and friends in nature.
    Next came the dissolution of the Diversity in Education Committee because the chair objected to the inclusion of these kids in policies and workshops based of personal, political and religious beliefs which is the very reason that school policies seek to be neutral.
     And now at NWClassen, the basis of refusing to allow the posting of positive Gay and Lesbian information and the supplying of the students with positive role models who happen to be Gay is presented as being based on sound reason and what is right for the students while the district tacitly agrees with it by letting it happen, when it is clear from the transcript of that part of the meeting dealing with Fr. Mychal Judge, that the true basis is uninformed bigotry and a desire to refuse to learn the truth about Gay and Lesbian people in favor of clinging to misinformation, bigotry and prejudice.
     The District states that it educates all students according to their needs, yet when it comes to Gay and Lesbian students, this seems not to apply.
    I have sent you all the emails about the situation at NWClassen, and how any positive information about Gay and Lesbian people that would be beneficial to GLBT students, as well as their straight peers, supplying them information and names of positive role models is systematically censored, and how a policy was invented and selectively applied to accomplish this.
    Now you have been brought in as I have been informed that you want me to give the principal the names of at least two GLBT students before an announcement can be made about the availability of information about a Gay/Straight Alliance. If this is true, then you are asking that we find at least two students who will be set up for potential harm at a school whose leadership continues to treat Gay and Lesbian information as unimportant, and Gay and Lesbian Students as not equal to the other students.
   How many other groups of students at any OKCPS high school cannot receive positive information, names of role-models, or potentially life saving information about themselves?
    How many other teachers who want to supply such information for groups to which other students belong have to go through another department, the Faculty Advisory Committee, name names or any of the other obstructions whose sole purpose is to prevent students who are required by law to attend school every day from getting true information about themselves and those like them, having to go so far as to adhere to a school policy that is not equally applied to all?
   Gay and Lesbian Students are being denied information solely because those who exercise power have archaic and uninformed beliefs about Gay and Lesbian people while ignoring facts in favor of stereotypes, and totally moronic misinformation?
   And now it appears that in spite of studies and reports done my States, the federal Government, and any number of legitimate groups, you support this censorship and the continued promotion of misinformation.
    Let me put it bluntly. Will the district only act AFTER some student is harmed? Will the district shake its head and wring its hands then and wonder how this could possibly happen here?
   I cannot even have a statement in my room that all students are protected from sexual harassment, even the Gay ones. What is the district afraid of in this instance? Is it stating that certain people can be harassed?
   We have a problem, and no one seems to want to address it.
   I think it is time that it is addressed.
      I would like to set up an appointment with you, the district's legal department, the school board, or anyone who will do something real, as opposed to only giving an appearance to discuss this.
     THESE ARE OUR STUDENTS and we are treating them like unwanted stepchildren.
Please let me know as soon as possible when this meeting can take place.

                                                                Sincerely,
                                                          Joseph M. Quigley

 

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