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Making Schools Safe for Evil
Report for
June 3, 2004
The information below comes from Safe Schools
Coalition, an organization which defines itself this way: "The Safe
Schools Coalition is a public-private partnership of 80+ organizations
(government agencies, schools, community agencies, churches, youth/student
groups, gay/lesbian groups, human rights groups) and 400+ individuals
working to help schools become safe places where every family can belong,
where every educator can teach, and where every child can learn,
regardless of gender identity or sexual orientation." We have deleted
some contact points from the following information but as required do
document the source of that information. Read it and be educated.
-----Original Message-----
Sent: Monday, May 31, 2004 8:32 PM
Subject: Same-sex marriage play by middle schoolers; Gay student's essay
teaches the teacher new lesson in tolerance
Dear Safe Schools Coalition members and friends,
1. Same-sex marriage play by middle schoolers.
2. Gay student's essay teaches the teacher new lesson in tolerance.
*****************************
1. Same-sex marriage play by middle schoolers.
Royce Conner shared this with us and we asked permission to share more
widely.
Forwarded Message Starts Here:
Dear PFLAG:
My name is Royce Conner. I teach 8th grade at Community Preparatory School
in Providence, RI. We are an independent urban school with a mission of
entering our mostly low-income students of color into competitive
college-prep high schools.
I teach a class called Humanities, a combination of reading, writing and
history. As one of two out teachers at our small school, I felt it was
important to discuss the issue of homophobia with our students by reading
the play "The Laramie Project". As a related class project, I
asked students to work together to choose one significant topic or event
they wanted to explore. The students would then interview an adult in
their lives on the topic, transcribe the interview, turn the transcription
into a play script, and perform the play. The students decided to explore
the issue of same-sex marriage. They conducted 35 interviews that show the
wide diversity our community has on this issue. The result was the play
"Outspoken", which I happily attach for
your interest. We performed this play on Thursday, May 13 for our school
community. The response has been positive. Our school community felt its
varied perspectives, both pro and con, were accurately and emotionally
reflected in the words spoken by our young people.
Perhaps the words of our community will continue to inspire you with a
reminder of how important your work is. Thank you for everything you do.
Best wishes,
Royce Conner
=====
Royce Conner
Teacher
Community Prep School
126 Somerset Street
Providence, RI 02907 . . .
http://www.CommunityPrep.org
"Don't dream it--be it!"
Thanks,
Ryan Spaeth
Safe Schools Coordinator
Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) . . .
*****************************
2. Gay student's essay teaches the teacher new lesson in tolerance.
<http://www.modbee.com/opinion/community/story/8619577p-9490628c.html>
Gay student's essay teaches the teacher a new lesson in tolerance
By Don Shaw
Education is often a reciprocal enterprise.
Those who attempt to teach also learn from their students; they have much
to tell us. We will be better mentors and better people if we hear them
well. I'm recalling a young man who, some 15 years ago, wrote an essay on
what it was like to be gay in the serene, comfortable environments of
north Modesto.
He had been writing in response to some such banal topic as "My
Biggest Problem" and what he shared with me clearly transcended the
demands of the assignment. I had previously recognized the superior
writing skills of this student, and these abilities enabled him to find
just the right matter-of-fact style to recall painful events with stark
clarity and without self-pity. He had experienced homophobia in a variety
of ways. He told of taunts and jibes and ostracisms. He mentioned no
physical abuse, but something worse - having to endure the widespread
intolerance of people indoctrinated into communal forms of hatred, that
hatred which often finds its severest expression in the frightening
inhumanity of an adolescent subculture. The slice of reality depicted in
that essay became, for me, a learning experience. Learning usually
involves some rethinking and that was the case here. I had never
considered myself homophobic, but at the same time, gay rights had never
ranked high on my personal agenda for social reform. "Don't ask,
don't tell" actually sounded pretty good to me. So I had to
re-examine some of the teachings I had grown up with. The Christian
denomination I belonged to (Presbyterian) was relatively tolerant, but
since many Christians still insisted that same-sex relationships were
unequivocally sinful, I decided to look more carefully at what the Bible
says.
I found those stern passages in Leviticus that include homosexuality among
practices condemned by the tribal code of the Israelites. But our culture
has long since declared inapplicable many other requirements of that code
such as dietary restrictions and draconian demands for the stoning to
death of disobedient sons and brides who cannot prove their virginity. It
would seem that common sense would require a similar reconsideration of
other demands from that area of Scripture. In the New Testament, only Paul
mentions the subject, calling homosexuality a perversion. But he also
insists that women be silent in church and "be in submission."
Paul was clearly an opinionated man and surely not all his opinions
qualify as divine truth. I became convinced that there is no basis for
condemning same-sex relationships on biblical grounds. It became clear to
me that the only valid moral principle on the subject to be derived from
Scripture is an affirmation based on Jesus's "new command" in
John 13, that we "love one another." I had been involved in a
unique learning process, thanks to a very articulate student, and I had
reached a new level of tolerance as a result.
* Shaw, a Turlock resident, has taught English at Downey and Beyer high
schools. . . .
Ryan Spaeth
Safe Schools Coordinator
Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) . . .
http://www.pflag.org . . .
----------------------
The Safe Schools Coalition is a public-private partnership of 80+
organizations (government agencies, schools, community agencies, churches,
youth/student groups, gay/lesbian groups, human rights groups) and 400+
individuals working to help schools become safe places where every family
can belong, where every educator can teach, and where every child can
learn, regardless of gender identity or sexual orientation.
Safe Schools' website: http://www.safeschoolscoalition.org
Got a problem at school with anti-gay harassment?
Call us 1-888 . . .
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Homo-Fascism
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