Replies

I sent Mr. Hunt an email several days ago thanking him for having the courage to speak out. Here is his response:

Thank you so very much for your support regarding allowing all sides, especially the ex-gay perspective, to be included in the discussions on homosexuality that occur outside of the FLE curriculum. It has been a great encouragement to receive your emails especially in light of the hatred that has filled so many of the emails from the contrary view. I apologize for a generic email response but I received a great many emails and have not had time to reply to each one individually.

Mr. Rigby, a homosexual activist and FCPS special education teacher, has informed the school board that he will be bringing a group of his supporters to address the board on this issue at the regular school board meeting on this coming Thursday. If you are interested in attending the meeting to show your support for free speech and the respect of differing opinions, the meeting starts at 8pm and is at Luther Jackson Middle School (3020 Gallows Rd, just north of route 50 on Gallows Rd). If you are interested in speaking, the speaker sign up begins at 7:30 and will probably fill up very quickly.

Thanks to you all who help support this effort. Here's the response I received, you'll notice it doesn't address anything around the reparative therapy issue which was specific and technical to my letter.

Thank you for your e-mail commenting on the letter that our colleague sent to FCPS high school principals. On February 3, the Fairfax County School Board approved a statement concerning the process Mr. Hunt used to convey his opinions. The Board has established procedures and guidelines for implementing curriculum changes and is committed to maintaining the integrity of these procedures. All 12 Board members voted in favor of this statement, including Mr. Hunt.

Some confusion has arisen about what we teach about homosexuality in Fairfax County Public Schools, which students receive this instruction, and how the curriculum is determined. Superintendent Jack Dale addresses this subject and notes, for example, that one unit in 9th grade and one in 10th grade reference homosexuality. Parents are advised of these units and their content before the beginning of each school year. Parents can view all the instructional materials at their local school, and they maintain the right to “opt out” their children from participating in any or all of these lessons.

Thank you again for writing to us to express your views.

Not only no mention of reparative therapy, it's an "opt out" program. Opt out programs notoriously stigmatize kids who don't want to go along with the crowd...or at least that was the lefts excuse against prayer in school.