- A California public school district is allowing homosexual
school employees to "come out" in front of children in school
without obtaining parents' permission.
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- A unanimous resolution allows teachers at the Hayward
Unified School District to talk openly about homosexuality or to discuss
their homosexual lifestyles with students during class. The district's
school board says such action is required under the California Student
Safety and Violence Prevention Act of 2000.
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- Teachers also are allowed to include homosexual figures
or role models in class and to read books with homosexual characters such
as "Heather Has Two Mommies."
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- The case in Hayward is part of a growing national trend
in how school districts deal with homosexuality.
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- Scott Lively, president of the Pro-Family Law Center
in Citrus Heights, Calif., said yesterday that his organization has received
calls from concerned parents in Massachusetts, Vermont, Missouri and other
towns in California during the past several months.
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- "It's a national campaign that is being pushed
by homosexual activists, and that campaign is to homosexualize the public-school
environment," Mr. Lively said. "One of the goals is to create
a voting majority within the high school students who would be in favor
of gay perspectives. These are activists who got in positions of authority
and use it to advance a selfish social agenda, and, frankly, that's evil."
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- School district officials said yesterday that the resolution
is about training students and teachers about tolerance and how to provide
a safe learning environment for homosexual students and teachers. It's
not about teaching students about homosexuality, said Kim Hammond, the
school district's chief administrative officer.
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- "We're not saying, 'Let's teach the students about
homosexuality,'" Ms. Hammond said. "What we're saying is, 'How
do we accept individuals who are different from ourselves?' Our school
board is committed to maintaining a safe learning environment for all
of our students."
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- But critics, including the Pacific Justice Institute,
argue that the resolution overrides parental rights by not requiring the
district's schools or teachers to give notice to parents or allow parents
a chance to opt their children out of the instruction.
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- "This gives teachers a blank check to flaunt homosexuality
to students, and that is totally crossing the line in public education,"
said Brad Dacus, the institute's president. "This is aggressive promoting
of changing the attitudes of children about homosexuality. The goal here
is not to promote school safety. The goal is to promote a social agenda."
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- The institute sent a letter to Hayward school officials
demanding that the policy be rescinded. "We won't do that because
this is the law and we're complying with it," Ms. Hammond said.
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- Ralph Stern, an attorney for the school system, said
in a letter to the institute that its reading of the resolution is "incorrect."
"It is incorrect when you state that this resolution authorizes teachers
to freely discuss personal sexual issues," Mr. Stern wrote. "We
do agree that this legislation does not require school districts to adopt
a particular curriculum. Adoption of the resolution does constitute adoption
of a curriculum."
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- The law states that school districts in California should
develop specific training procedures to protect students and staff from
harassment or violence. The training must focus on strategies for handling
harassment, responding to biased behavior, dealing with name-calling and
creating a safe learning environment.
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- Hayward schools approved the resolution after hearing
testimony from local homosexual activists that homosexual students face
severe isolation and fear when they come out. According to a 2001 national
survey, 83 percent of homosexual students reported being verbally harassed
because of their sexual orientation, and 21 percent reported being physically
assaulted.
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- The resolution specifically states that each school
should develop "procedures that insure that gay youth and staff can
come out without fear of reprisal or harassment." It also states
that "existing curriculum be reviewed, expanded and improved to ensure
teachers can provide positive images of gay people in the classroom and
discuss alternative family configurations; and infuse relevant homosexual
curriculum across disciplines."
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- Parents whose children attend Hayward schools said no
one should be subjected to harassment or violence, but they don't want
their parental rights to be taken away in the meantime.
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- "I refuse to allow my responsibility as a parent
to be violated by covertly dismantling parental authorization required
when sensitive family and sex-education issues are addressed as stated
in the education code," said one parent who did not want to be identified.
"District board members have failed to honor parental discretion
and the law."
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- http://washingtontimes.com/national/20020525-93388851.htm
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