Pat Dollard

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CNSNews:

The principal and a teacher at Goleta Valley Junior High School in Santa Barbara County, California are apologizing to parents for not following school district policy relating to a pro-homosexual workshop given to 8th grade students in a leadership class at the school.

The controversial workshop was presented by “Just Communities Central Coast” in three, 45-minute sessions over three days. It included handouts defining homosexual terminology, including queer and transgender, and listed “heterosexism” as “oppression that ‘pushes down’ people who are LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, transgender and questioning) and ‘pushes up’ people who are straight.”

The handout defines sexual orientation this way: “Refers to who we feel romantically and sexually attracted to and who we fall in love with.”

One page featuring cartoon-like figures and entitled “Gender & Sexuality Definitions: A Visual Map,” depicts a person’s body with the heart area labeled as “sexual orientation” and the genital area labeled as “sex.”

A page entitled “Heterosexism” asks students to answer a three-part question: “How are LGBTQ people discriminated against or mistreated in the United States, in your local community and in your school?”

Parental outrage

Betsy Cleary’s 13-year-old daughter was in the class during the workshop. She told Cleary following the second day of the workshop that she no longer liked leadership class because of what she described as a visit by “a sex group.”

“She was very uncomfortable,” Cleary told CNSNews.com. “She said, ‘I sat in the back and wished I could leave, but I couldn’t.’”

Cleary said she was shocked after reviewing the handouts her daughter received in the workshop and decided to share her concerns with other parents by e-mail, which was obtained by CNSNews.com. She also paid a visit to the office of the school’s principal, Veronica Rogers.

Cleary wanted to know why she was not notified about the content of the workshop ahead of time.

“I said, ‘Look, I don’t know my rights right now, all I know is that I have been violated as a parent,” Cleary told Rogers. “She said because [the workshop] falls under a health heading, they don’t need to do an ‘opt out.’ But if it had gone under a sex education heading, they could have an ‘opt out.’ And I said, ‘Clearly, and I showed her the picture, this is sex education. There is a circle around the genitals.’”

Principal Rogers told CNSNews.com that she was not aware of the content of the workshop handouts until they were brought to her attention by parents.

Matt Neal, whose son is an eighth grader at the school but did not attend the workshop, said after reviewing the workshop material that he asked Rogers how the curriculum was approved for the classroom. When he was told by Rogers that she had not seen the handouts prior to the workshop, he said he thought she and the leadership class teacher should make a public apology.

Neal told CNSNews.com that he thinks homosexuality should not be considered a topic for study by students in junior high school.

“I find it confounding that professional educators who have invested their careers in studying various pedagogy, principles, and evaluated the timing of lessons based on content, merit, and student maturity would not ask of themselves, ‘Is this topic merit worthy of our time and energy?’” Neal said. “Educators have grappled with, researched, and written volumes of content on how to teach grammar structures, math skills, history, art, etc., and yet have very little evidence as to the merit and pedagogy of this material for junior high students.”

“Honestly, this is what alarms me the most,” Neal said.

District reacts to controversy

After CNSNews.com contacted the Santa Barbara School District and the principal of the junior high school and asked about the Just Communities workshop–how it was approved and why parents were not notified and offered a way to have their children “opt out”–e-mails sent to parents and CNSNews.com reflected that officials apparently had a change of heart concerning the matter.

Barbara Keyani, coordinator of administrative services and communications with the school district, told CNSNews.com that “protocols” were not followed ahead of the workshop, which she said should have included review of the content under the school board’s “controversial issues” policy and sex education policy, which requires parents to be notified and allows them to keep their children out of the class.

“Please be aware that apologies have been issued by the principal, given the circumstances of this situation, for not having followed appropriate protocols,” Keyani said.

Leadership class teacher Christine Shaw sent an email to parents ahead of the workshop, as part of a weekly schedule she routinely distributes to parents. The e-mail reads as follows:

“Wednesday: Students will host Pumpkin Bowling at lunch. Today starts a 3-day series with a quest speaker from Just Communities, a local NPO (non-profit organization) centered on fostering diversity and tolerance. The speaker will be addressing issues that students here at GV face, and give them tools to handle these situations in positive ways.”

In this week’s e-mail to Cleary, Shaw apologized for the vagueness of the notice: “Also, I apologize for not being explicit about the topics covered in the Just Communities presentations.”

But Neal said Shaw’s behavior is what caused the controversy.

“I was incredibly saddened to learn that Ms. Rogers was left in the dark about the content and curriculum of Just Communities, who was invited by GVJH leadership teacher, Christine Shaw,” Neal said. “Just Communities provided every piece of curriculum and subject matter well in advance of the presentation, and Ms. Shaw did not have the respect for parents or the students, that the material being presented could be highly offensive to our families at GVJH.”

“She simply chose not to inform her supervisor of the material, and as a parent I feel like the school does not have the best interests of my son in mind, only their agenda,” Neal said.

Jarodd Schwartz, executive director of Just Communities, says his organization is just promoting “respect and safety” for students.

“We’re not promoting anything beyond respect and safety for all students,” Schwartz told CNSNews.com. “Our perspective is that all students regardless of race, sexual orientation, ability, etcetera, need to be treated with respect and dignity and school should be a safe, supportive learning environment.”

Schwartz said Just Communities staff developed and presented the material at the workshop. He said that the three sessions–Roots of Violence, Gender and Sexism; Homophobia and Heterosexism; and Inequality Based on Race–do not promote homosexuality.

But most of the material in the handouts given to students deals with what Just Communities believes is discrimination against people because they are homosexual and social and parental influence on “gender identity.”

Two exercises in the handouts are called “Act Like A Man Box” and “Act Like a Lady Box.” Students are asked to imagine what their parents or other adults say to them that make them feel they must stay inside the “man” and “lady” box.

“What’s hard about being in this box all the time?” the worksheet asks. “What qualities help us resist the pressure to be ‘in the box?’”

Cleary said she was angry that her daughter was taught about homosexuality in the workshop, including being told by the Just Communities staff member who conducted the workshop that having a very close relationship with someone of the same sex could result in homosexuality or bi-sexuality.

“Whether or not they will fess up to what was said, this is what our daughter heard,” Cleary said. “This is what she interpreted. And this is why I am angry.”

“Because when you are so forceful in what you’re showing, kids can interpret things in different ways,” Cleary said. “So it was introduced into our daughter’s brain that because she has a girlfriend, she could be bi, or gay or straight — they use straight too — you know, it could be coming out as your sexuality develops.”

Cleary said it was ironic that an organization that was billed as teaching tolerance uses what she described as “intimidation” in the workshop, including criticizing parents who voted for Proposition 8, a ballot initiative that passed in California in November 2008 that read: “Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.”

“One kid asked this authority figure from Just Communities, what about Proposition 8?” Cleary said. “And apparently it was asked, well, whose parents voted for yes or no? And those who voted yes, [they are] prejudiced and discriminatory.”

Just Communities has offered to meet with parents who have complained about the workshop to “explore our presentation materials.”

The Santa Barbara School District has told parents it would make sure protocol is followed for future workshops conducted by outside organizations.