[Leisler]

Kevin Jennings is the Assistant Deputy heading the Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools at the U.S. Department of Education, a position sometimes known as the “safe schools czar”.[1]

Jennings is a native of Winston-Salem, North Carolina.[2] He received a bachelor’s degree magna cum laude in history from Harvard University, where he delivered the Harvard Oration at the 1985 commencement.[2] He was a high school history teacher, first at Moses Brown School in Providence, Rhode Island, from 1985 to 1987, and then at Concord Academy in Concord, Massachusetts, from 1987 to 1995.[2]

He founded the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) in Boston in 1990,[2][1] which seeks to end discrimination, harassment, and bullying based on sexual orientation and gender identity. In 1992, he was appointed by Governor William Weld to co-chair the Education Committee of the Governor’s Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth.[2] In 1993, Jennings was named a Joseph Klingenstein Fellow at Columbia University’s Teachers College, from which he received his master’s degree in interdisciplinary studies in education in 1994.[2] Jennings earned an M.B.A. from New York University’s Stern School of Business in 1999.[2]

In 1998 he won the Lambda Literary Award in the Children’s/Young Adult category for his book Telling Tales Out of School.[2] He has published six books in total on gay rights and education.[1] His works have described his own past as a closeted gay student.[1]

In 2009, Jennings’ Department of Education appointment came under criticism from conservative groups, in part because of his past frequent drug abuse he described in his 2007 autobiography, Mama’s Boy, Preacher’s Son: A Memoir, questioning his qualification for the job.[1] The Center for American Progress and similar groups defended Jennings

[Joe 6-pack]

"He received a bachelor’s degree magna cum laude in history from Harvard University, where he delivered the Harvard Oration at the 1985 commencement.[2] He was a high school history teacher..."

While I'm generally not impressed by ivy league creds, I'm surprised that with a Harvard bachelors and the kind of faculty recommendations he'd get as a magna cum laude, the best he could do is teaching high school...unless he really, really wanted to be around teen boys.

[bustinchops]

So he’s a homo. That explains it. Well, not just a homo. He’s a homo who wants to indoctrinate and draft youngsters into the life. I think Beck or Hannity should send out some investigators to find the NAMBLA connection.

Teaching profession and queerdom is a real bad combination.

[GOPJ]

In 2009, Jennings’ Department of Education appointment came under criticism from conservative groups, in part because of his past frequent drug abuse he described in his 2007 autobiography...

Yep, great role model...

[Ben Reyes]

Correction: ‘Smegma cum laude’.