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

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

[TaxRelief]

---

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.

[TaxRelief]

Below is a list of optional seminars recently presented at GS-West.

WEEK ONE

1. Strange Little Short Stories
2. Aesthetics of Choreography
3. Relativity
4. This is Not a Pipe: Magritte and How We Interpret Art
5. Love Lace
6. Discussion of Love Lace
7. Ecstasy and the Brain: A Neurological Perspective on Contemporary Drugs
8. Deconstructing Scrabble: Synthesizing a Killer Word
9. Word Play: Experiments in Poetry
10. African-American Film Series
11. Yoga
12. Reading Circles
13. Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time
14. The Topology of 20th Century Theater: A Hands-on Approach
15. The Art & Science of Flying: From Bernoulli to Paragliding

WEEK TWO

16. The Art of Montage: Two Films by Alfred Hitchcock: Psycho & Vertigo
17. Suzuki Open Class
18. Activism and Protest Culture
19. Film: Twilight
20. GSW Movie Series Preview: Film's Unique Vocabulary
21. General Relativity for Dummies
22. The Tropicalization of Latin America: Disney's Three Caballeros
23. Word Play: Experiments in Poetry
24. Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time (repeat)
25. Yoga
26. Robert Putnam's Bowling Alone: Declining Social Capital in America
27. Two Poets and a Guy with a Story
28. Roussel, the Oulipo, and the Constraint in Literature

WEEK THREE

29. Mythos and Modernity in Japanese Cinema (Or East Meets West(erns)): Akira Kurasawa's Seven Samurai
30. Gazing into the Abyss: An Introduction to Existentialism
31. Nuestra Comunidad: Latinos in North Carolina
32. Mean Genes and the Biology of Pleasure
33. An Introduction to the Poetry of Natasha Trethewey
34. Word Play: Experiments in Poetry
35. Yoga

WEEK FOUR

36. Four Poets
37. The Merchants of Cool: How Corporate America is Defining What You Think is Cool
38. Ask the TACs Anything (About College)
39. The Bioethics of Genetic Testing and Stem Cells
40. The Use of Force: An Idea in Art and Science
41. This is What Democracy Looks Like – The 1999 Seattle Protest
42. Word Play: Experiments in Poetry
43. Yoga
44. Reading Circles
45. African American Film Series: Slam
46. Appalachian Documentary: American Hollow
47. Life & Debt – Global Economic Policy at Work in Jamaica
48. Topology & Order Parameters in Physics
49. Discussion of Globalization Films
50. Area II Cloning Debate
51. How Do Poems Mean?
52. Ways of Knowing and Those @#$% Environmentalists
53. Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining – How Cheap is Your Electricity
54. Exploring the Golden Ratio: The Story of Phi, the World's Most Astonishing Number
55. Phase Shifting: The Early Compositions of Steve Reich
56. Writing for Fun and Insight
57. Sudden Fiction & Contemporary Lif
58. Critics' Choice: Exploring Literary Theories

WEEK FIVE

59. The New French Wave: Jean-Luc Godard – Breathless, Le Mepris (Contempt)
60. Individuality, Conformity, and Society
61. Suburbia and the New American Home
62. Song Writing Workshop
63. Meet Your Meat, Part I
64. Famine Relief for Mauritania
65. Industrial Areas Foundation: A Proven Approach to Community Action
66. Film Screening: Zoot Suit
67. Word Play: Experiments in Poetry
68. Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Philosophy
69. Funny Dirty Little War: Peronism and Argentina's Dirty War
70. Lingua Comica: Comics, Art, and Visual Communication
71. Yoga
72. The Mathematics of Music or the Music of Mathematics
73. Can We Think Our Way to Belief? Philosophical Arguments For/ Against God's Existence
74. Holden Thorp's DNA: The Secret of Life
75. African-American Film Series: Scankofa

WEEK SIX

76. The Transcendental Cinema of Michelangelo Antonioni: Blow Up & L'Avventura
77. Sociology of Capitalism
78. Follow Your Bliss
79. New Music Improvised and Not
80. Capital Punishment: A Lawyer's Perspective
81. African American Film Series: Sankofa, Part II
82. Presumed Guilty: A Performance of “The Exoneratedâ€Ãƒƒ‚�
83. Dead Man Walking
84. Are We There Yet? - Women in Science
85. Word Play: Experiments in Poetry
86. The Real Scoop About College
87. Yoga
88. Meet Your Meat, Part II
    

 

---

The secret homosexual seminar took place on the second last day of the sixth week. They are still keeping it secret from this year's potential recruits.

[thehumanlynx]

It is addressed in an article linked from the posted article. The seminar was sceduled while the school was in session, so it was not disclosed to the parents/students prior to the start of the school.

[TaxRelief]

Each year, each campus of Governor's Indoctrination School invites "distinguished academics and artists" to speak to the student body. These speakers represent the most current work and debates in their arena of ideas. Governor's School wants to challenge its students and provoke thoughtful conversation within the Governor's School community.

Here are sample speakers from Governor's School East's "Convocations" series in recent years. Several of these speakers have also presented at Governor's School West's Speakers Series.

• Svi Shapiro, Director of the PhD. Program in Curriculum and Teaching, University of North Carolina, Greensboro - "Elitism in Public Education"
  Dr. Shapiro challenged the students to rethink the role of public schools. Are public schools really about academic excellence or are they more concerned with promoting ruthless competition, smugness, and conformism?
  
  
• Stanley Hauerwas, Professor of Theological Ethics, Duke Divinity School - "A Pacifist Response"
  Self-described as a "Christian Contrarian," Dr. Hauerwas generated a great deal of discussion among GSE students concerning the relationship between Christianity, Pacifism and the tragic events of September 11, 2001.
  
  
• Carol Quinn, Assistant Professor, Center for Professional and Applied Ethics, University of North Carolina, Charlotte - "Race, Class, and Environmental Justice"
  Dr. Quinn highlighted issues concerning environmental racism and its impact on the United States of America.
  
  
• James Wilson-Quayle, Professor of Political Science, George Washington University
  "The American Economy and Liberty"
  Professor Wilson-Quayle weaved together an intricate argument that questioned the ability of the United States to continue its impressive economic growth. What will the United States do to maintain its growth, turn to the forces of Globalization? Institute procedures to redistribute wealth? Simplify our lifestyles?
  
  
• Tom Regan, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, North Carolina State University - "A Case for Animal Rights"
  Professor Regan posed the question, "Do animals have rights?" From this starting point, he expanded the student's understanding of the issue by logically laying out the possible basis for animal rights.
  
  
• Charles Kimball, Department of Religion, Professor and Chair, Wake Forest University - "When Religion Becomes Evil"
  Professor Kimball focused the attention of the GSE students on the question of why people commit evil acts in the name of religion. He introduced what he saw as warning signs that a religion was becoming evil and encouraged the students to apply his test to the current state of the world.
  
  
• Patrick Dougherty, Installation Artist - "Primitive Ways in an Accelerated World"
  Mr. Dougherty explored the relationship between the artist and the public. His presentation challenged students to think about the function of public space.
  
  
• Ceasar Alvarez, Performer/Musician - "Hyper-Reality"
  Mr. Alvarez offered the GSE student body an alternate view of music and art than that presented by the conventional media outlets. He juxtaposed his visual presentation with live and recorded music to create a true "hyper-reality" experience.
  
  
• Paul Anderson, Associate Professor of Physics, Wake Forest University - "Exploring the Cosmos"
  Dr. Anderson expanded the GSE students' view of the world by asking them to imagine the entire cosmos. His presentation covered such questions as, How was the universe created? Is the universe expanding? How does it expand?
  
  
• Mike Despines, Regional Director for International Rescue Committee - "The American Dream - The World's Nightmare"
  Mr. Despines awed the student body with staggering statistics, figures, and questions about the future of our environment and the role humans (especially Americans) in contributing to its decline. He emphasized the impact of exponential growth in population and consumption.

[Aquinasfan]

May students go home on weekends? No.

That tells me all I need to know.

[TaxRelief]

This was a secret seminar. It was not on the list provided to parents. See list at post #61

[TaxRelief]

it was not disclosed to the parents/students prior to the start of the school.

...Nor any time afterwards. Parents were never notified of the change. Permission was not sought.

[Zeroisanumber]

Since the witch hunts of the 1980's, I've always reserved judgement of teachers accused of sexual misconduct with a student until there has been a complete investigation.

People are always jumping the gun, and that needs to stop.

[Aquinasfan]

Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Philosophy

How about St. Thomas and Philosophy? < /rimshot>

This list reads like the creme de la crappe.

[thehumanlynx]

Professor Kimball focused the attention of the GSE students on the question of why people commit evil acts in the name of religion. He introduced what he saw as warning signs that a religion was becoming evil and encouraged the students to apply his test to the current state of the world.

I wonder which religion's he focused on? What his test was?

For instance: Is a person of power who claims to speak with a higher power that leads us into a war for oil likely involved in an evil religion? (kimball answers his own rhetoric... YES, that mans religion is no doubt evil)

Does a religion seek to deny rights to deserving segments of society like homosexuals? (kimball again: absolutely, Christianity is an antiquated evil religion that seeks to destroy the world in the name of "Jesus". )

Are religions whose practitioners are forced to fight oppression by whatever means necessary evil? (kimball says: No, they are simply surviving, if Israel would stop their oppression of the Palestinians and the US would halt its imperialism on the world then no Muslim would have to attack the US or Israel)

This is all speculation but my guess, after reading a bit about these schools, is that his speech wasn't ideologically far off of my guess.

I can only hope I am dead wrong.

[TAdams8591]

"Since the witch hunts of the 1980's, I've always reserved judgement of teachers accused of sexual misconduct with a student until there has been a complete investigation."

Very much agreed and for the same reason.

[TaxRelief]

From Publisher's Weekly:

"[Kimball] contends that there are five warning signs that we can recognize when religion moves toward [evil]. Whenever a religion emphasizes that it holds the absolute truth-the one path to God or the only correct way of reading a sacred text-to the exclusion of the truth claims of all other religions and cultures, that religion is becoming evil. Other warning signs include blind obedience to religious leaders, apocalyptic belief that the end time will occur through a particular religion, the use of malevolent ends to achieve religious goals (e.g., the Crusades) and the declaration of holy war."

( Kimball, BTW, served as the director of the Middle East office of the National Council of Churches)

[Adder]

Human rights, yes...certainly.

[taxesareforever]

I'll have to say, since I am a concerned parent, just looking at that list of courses I would not allow my child to attend.

[little jeremiah]

Ameila - please read this whole thread.

[TheBattman]

Hmmm... Maybe NC just followed the curriculum that Clinton instituted...???

[wintertime]

GBoettner,

I am so sorry to hear about your son. I am sorry I didn't understand part of your post. Did you pull him out of school or only the Governor's school?

[wintertime]

Testimony of parent whose son committed suicide after attending the Ark. Gov.'s School

---

8

This mother's testimony is very sad.

[Coleus]

Dad Says His Son 'Damaged' by Homosexual Indoctrination at State-Sponsored Program
	On News/Activism 02/13/2006 12:36:27 AM EST · 392 of 402

So you're saying that there is a widespread pattern of homosexual activists in high schools "coercing" teenagers to go to meetings where they are subject to "attempted molestation"? >>>>

YES!

[GadareneDemoniac]

I attended one of these in Georgia in the 1960's. It was indeed patterned after the NC program, and most of the staff and faculty were of the "JFK" mold of liberals that one could encounter before the Viet Nam / LBJ debacle.

We read good books, talked about "big ideas", and watched foreign films - with subtitles!! One of the English teachers from New Jersey was more knowledgeable than any of my "Kudzu League" profs that I encountered later at college. Heavy stuff for a kid from the middle of nowhere. It was at that program that I discovered the charms of smart girls and late-night cigars. No, not like Billy Clinton (I know what you're thinking).

Fortunately for me, I was raised by two parents who encouraged intelligent thought and open discussion - and who expected you to back up your statements with facts, not feeeelings. I'm sure that a lot of my fellow attendees are the sort of baby boomers who set my teeth on edge now when I meet them.

The type of liberal arts people from those days, even though a few were openly disdainful of middle-class values, would have no place among the wild-eyed left wing nuts that came on the scene after the summer of "peace and love". So, I would not encourage my grandchildren to attend any of these programs. Sad, really.

[thehumanlynx]

Crusades: evil -- I agree that killing people in the name of conversion is terrible.

Jihad: (to him) not worth talking about -- I would contend that it is worth mentioning in the realm of evil.

What is the point of believing in a religion if you don't consider it to be the true path to God? I see no point.