Posted on 02/08/2002 3:05:41 PM PST by anniegetyourgun
WASHINGTON (AP) - The nation's largest teachers union will ask school districts to protect homosexual students and staff by adopting policies that punish harassment and discrimination.
Under a plan adopted Friday by the National Education Association's board of directors, schools also will be encouraged to develop factual materials for classroom discussions on homosexuality. All staff and students will be encouraged to speak up when they see or experience discrimination based on sexual orientation.
"I think it's a pretty clear signal that the organization recognizes there are some pretty serious needs for gay and lesbian children in school - and employees," said Penny Kotterman, president of the Arizona Education Association. She chairs the NEA's Task Force on Sexual Orientation, which was created last fall to develop the plan.
Kotterman, a middle school special education teacher in the Kyrene School District in suburban Phoenix, said the plan will help schools with difficult issues of student sexuality.
"Staff do need help," she said. "They need professional development, they need good, factual data that helps them deal with these issues."
The union said it could provide "accurate, objective and up-to-date information" on the needs and problems of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered students and staff.
A statement by the NEA said the information schools provide should be age-appropriate, nonjudgmental and relevant to subject matter being studied.
Studies indicate that homosexual students have higher dropout and suicide rates and sometimes are treated with hostility by fellow students. NEA President Bob Chase has said gay and lesbian teachers in some states face losing their jobs because of their sexual orientation.
"It is clear that, in too many places, students and education employees who are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered face a hostile environment," Chase said Friday in the statement.
A study last year by the University of North Carolina estimated that 5 percent to 6 percent of students 17 or younger, or more than 2 million students, are gay, lesbian or bisexual.
The NEA represents 2.6 million teachers and other school employees.
The truth offends you. That isn't surprising in the least. That's why you're so brainlessly "tolerant" you're incapable of distinuishing between perversion and health.
An eye filled with darkness is dark indeed.
An ominous statement. Toleration is the best homosexuals will ever get. And the great tolerance Americans have show in the past is wearing thin as gays push their agenda on other people's children. Every couple expecting a baby hopes the kid is normal. Doesn't have spina bifida, Down syndrome, is a heterosexual like them etc...etc. Even if the activists are successful in demonizing religions which oppose them, it still won't stop the innate repulsion normal people feel toward homosexuality.
Well, there you go then. With that attitude, it's kind of hard to have a debate on what should and should not happen in public education.
First off, public education was never mentioned in the Constitution as a right, privilege, or anything else for that matter. It was only instituted after the War for reasons that we will not get into here, but there was a specific reason for it.
I've been watching your comments and I find them quite interesting. Contrary to popular belief, or whatever it's called nowadays this nation was founded under the precepts of Christianity. There was never a statement separating church and state in the Constitution, but we'll leave that one alone for a moment (and please no Thomas Paine comments, they're quite trite and there were 54 other men who signed the Constitution). The separation, if there was one, only applied to the federal level of government, as seen by state Constitutions and actions of the separate states up until the 14th Amendment. Massachusetts charged a church tax, that was mandatory and quite constitutional at the state level, requiring citizens of the state to pay 5% I believe of their income to support the state church. Other states had their respective official churches throughout much of the 19th century. So to say that this nation was founded upon some sort of amoral grounding with no thought of what the Bible said is not only an uneducated assumption, it is also wrong. This nation BECAME ungodly and immoral or perhaps you would like to read some of what was done by the Founders and their peers to those that stepped out of accepted moral lines
Perhaps they aren't advocating anything, but rather trying to protect the students with their lifestyle choices from themselves.
As they say in Jamaica, "no problem." Forgive me as I misinterpreted your tone and meaning.
You could have fooled me. Have you taken a look around? Sex is everywhere. The outlook has changed. Did you know what my PBS station aired last night? A documentary called -- get this -- American Porn! They were talking to a guy who was basically pimping his wife (before the camera) for money.
Actually, I don't think Victorian morals are a shame, but in my view, ties into the issue of personal privacy and self-respect. Let me explain...I'm ready for sex--of any and all kinds--to get back into the closet. I'm tired of everybody flaunting what should be a private matter. Whose business is it if a person is gay or straight, anyway?
I don't know about you, but I've had enough of seeing everybody's personal sexual laundry being hung out to dry when the majority of Americans are having a hard enough time putting food on the table and paying our taxes. We need to be spared the aggravation of this group and that group who do absolutely nothing to make society better and in many cases make it worse for everybody.
Well there is good news here, the Gay promoters have lowered their claim of 10% of the population.
Yeah, Buddy, and imposing SEXUAL conduct, one way or another, ESPECIALLY DEVIANT sexual conduct that can lead to death isn't violence on OUR KIDS???????????
SPOOKBRAT'S true colors????????????????? Wow. Eyes that see but are blind. Ears that hear but are deaf......
Does that include yourself?
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