Who is Diane Lenning and Why Did She Almost Lose Her Job?, Warren Throckmorton, PhD July 19, 2004
"Who is Diane Lenning? Mrs. Lenning is a public school teacher from California who was until recently the Chair of the Republican Educators Caucus, an interest group within the National Education Association. According to a series of stories by George Archibald of the Washington Times, Mrs. Lenning recently was challenged and nearly ousted from her position in part because she formally protested an award the NEA presented the week of its annual convention in early July. What award? The NEA gives human rights awards yearly and this year one of them, the Virginia Uribe Human Rights Award was given to Kevin Jennings, the Executive Director of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Educators Caucus (GLSEN).
If you have children in public schools, the Lenning - Jennings story is one you should know.
Kevin Jennings is the founder and executive director of the group that seeks to bring discussion of homosexuality related issues to our nation’s public schools from the elementary grades to college. GLSEN has been remarkably successful in popularizing the concept of gay-straight support clubs in schools, of which there are now more than 2000 nationwide. However, Mrs. Lenning and the other teachers were not protesting his award based on his political objectives...
Here are the details. In his book, One Teacher in Ten, Mr. Jennings wrote about a high school sophomore who confessed to him what appears to be a homosexual affair with an older adult male. As now, teachers in Massachusetts were then required to report such sexual offenses involving minors to the authorities. Failure to report is not only unethical behavior but illegal in the state. According to Mr. Jennings account in the book and corroborated by a July 2 Washington Times’ article, no such report was made. Mr. Jennings turned the event into a time of sharing and apparently a part of the boy’s gay coming out story. Concerning this event, Mrs. Lenning’s letter asks: "Is it a good idea for NEA to honor as exemplary a teacher who engages in unethical practice?"
Mrs. Lenning also mentioned the role of GLSEN in another Massachusetts incident. She wrote: “GLSEN has been involved in questionable incidents that bring undesired notoriety to the education profession and should not be awarded. The famous questionable “Fistgate” at Tufts University is an example of GLSEN activities that have brought unsolicited notoriety.”
What was Fistgate? Along with the MA Department of Education on March 25, 2000, GLSEN presented a workshop for teachers and students that resulted in the dismissal of three DOE employees and the removal of GLSEN as the state authorized contractor. Mr. Jennings was the keynote speaker at the event. The reason for the dismissal involved graphic descriptions of how to perform certain homosexual acts before students as young as 14. A tape was made of the event and publicly distributed. I can’t report what was said because if I did, this column would not get published anywhere..."
"... In the letter, Mrs. Lenning said Mr. Jennings had broken Massachusetts law in 1988 by not reporting a 16-year-old high school student's disclosure of emotional problems resulting from a sexual affair with an older man in Boston.
Mr. Jennings cited the youth's problems in a book, saying he sympathized with the boy's homosexual relationship after he came for guidance to Mr. Jennings, an openly homosexual teacher at Concord Academy in Concord, Mass.
A state "mandatory reporter" law required the teacher to inform state social services authorities of a possible case of child sexual abuse, which he did not do..."