Gay Seminar Teacher Investigated [NC Governor's School: Sexual abuse of minor]

A Carolina Journal Exclusive ^ | February 14, 2006 | Paul Chesser

[TaxRelief]

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K-12 Education

Gay Seminar Teacher Investigated

Teacher probed for sexual misconduct with East Forsyth student

By Paul Chesser

February 14, 2006

RALEIGH — A co-teacher of a controversial seminar on homosexuality at last year's taxpayer-funded Governor's School is under investigation in Forsyth County for alleged sexual misconduct with a student.

Susan Wiseman helped lead a lecture based on a book called "The New Gay Teenager," given at the Governor's School West. The six-week Governor’s School is conducted every summer, with 400 students each at two locations: Salem College in Winston-Salem (West) and Meredith College in Raleigh (East).

The residential program draws public high school students who are approaching their senior years, and who are nominated by their high schools’ teachers and administrators. Students are identified as “intellectually gifted,” and the program “integrat(es) academic disciplines, the arts, and unique courses….”

According to a report in the Winston-Salem Journal on Friday, Wiseman is being investigated for allegations of sexual activity with a 17-year-old student. The report was confirmed to Carolina Journal by a source involved in the investigation.

Wiseman, according to the Journal, is a social studies teacher at East Forsyth High School. She is also listed as a youth coordinator for the Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG)-Winston-Salem.

Wiseman co-led the "New Gay Teenager" seminar with a 19-year-old office assistant at the Governor's School — Wesley Nemenz — who is homosexual, a former Governor's School attendee, and a student at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

The seminar was heavily criticized by James and Beverly Burrows, whose son attended the school last year and said their son returned home from the school “confused” about homosexuality as a result of the seminar, and that they have had to seek family counseling.

“We feel that this was totally inappropriate for the students who were 15, 16, and 17 years old,” the Burrowses wrote to officials at the State Department of Public Instruction last August. “We feel that our rights as parents have been violated by this program.”

The Burrowses accused the Governor's School of having a "pro-homosexual agenda."

DPI and Governor's School officials defended the seminar, saying it was optional for students to attend, as is the Governor’s School itself.

The state budget fully funds the program, with $1.3 million set aside for it this fiscal year. Students are nominated based on specific areas of academic or performing-arts excellence, and pay nothing to attend, other than the cost to travel to the schools.

At least two other families were also disturbed by the changes in their children after returning from the Governor's School last year, based on students' writings on the MySpace Internet website.

Wiseman has not been charged with any crimes. Vanessa Jeter, a spokeswoman for the Department of Public Instruction, was unaware of the investigation and said she would make sure the agency's attorneys were aware of it.

"We would take that kind of thing very seriously," Jeter said.

Paul Chesser (pchesser@carolinajournal.org) is associate editor of Carolina Journal.

[ArGee]

The brazen assumption they they are "just like everyone else" and somehow have "rights" is or should be an anathema.

Just like everyone else? Hmmmm.

Can I propose a course at the Governor's School to discuss G-d's design for marriage and why fornication, adultery, and homosexuality harm the individuals and society? That would give me and the homosexuals something in common, wouldn't it? Surely the school would want to engage multiple points of view to further debate, discussion, and learning, wouldn't it?

They also have flying cows there, don't they?

Shalom.

[ArGee]

You intolerant redneck!

As the official founder of the Bigot and Redneck Alliance Against Defamation (BRAAD) I must protest your use of hate speech in this forum.

We're here! We're intolerant! Get used to it!

or we'll kick your a$$

Shalom.

[ArGee]

Follow Your Bliss

Follow your bliss???

Words fail me. What in the world is a College Campus doing presenting anything with a name like that?

How about "Do Your Duty." THAT'S what we need to be teaching.

Follow your bliss, indeed!

Shalom.

[TaxRelief]

It's worse than you think; This is high school.

[ArGee]

If children are homeschooled, they do not get exposure to what society truly is. They are forever in their own world, usually consisting of their families and home-schooled friends. It promotes a cycle of close-mindedness.

Not to worry. I solved that problem. Every day I took my kids into the bathroom, beat them up, and tried to sell them drugs.

Seriously, do you believe that tripe or did you just cut-n-paste something you saw on a TEA Web Site?

Shalom.

[Paperdoll]

Everything Federal gubmint gets involved in seems to go awry. The private sector used to handle everything better than the Feds (who live in another world somewhere in La-La Land with the ACLU for the most part). Education generally would be better if handled on the local level with parents closely involved. The Fed's agenda is not that of the American people on the whole. The National Education Administration should have been thrown out by Ronald Reagan.in mho.

[Paperdoll]

In my opinion any adult who molests a child deserves the death penalty. The child is scarred for life.

[wintertime]

Education generally would be better if handled on the local level with parents closely involved.
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Paperdoll,

Local government education would be an improvement but there would still be Freedom of Conscience issues.

Education is a highly political, cultural, and morals, ethics, and values ( religious) endeavor. It can never be neutral in content or consequences.

So....even if government school districts were as small as a suburban subdivision, the government school would be establishing, upholding, supporting and promoting the political, cultural, and ethics ( religion) of some and undermining and subverting those of others.

The solution to ending the evolution/ID wars, as well as other fights over hundreds of other issues, is to have complete separation of SCHOOL and state.

[WayneS]

Did you take their lunch money and threaten to "wait for them after school" if they told anyone?

I think that is an important part of a "public" education.

[ArGee]

;)

Actually, the plan got derailed a bit when they formed a 'gang'. I think they learned a lot.

Shalom.

[Tax-chick]

http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/JennniferRobackMorse/2006/02/20/187136.html

Very relevant article on Townhall today. She notes that self-identification as "gay" drops off dramatically after age 18. (In other words, teenagers are easily influenced ... who'da thunkit?)