Many of the writing assignments I teach are based on classroom discussions and each year some of the most interesting discussions concern the First Amendment rights of students.
Naturally, I talk about the Tinker case, in which Justice Abe Fortas wrote that students do not shed their constitutional rights at the schoolhouse door. Of course, that ruling, which was handed down more than 40 years ago, is ancient history to my eighth graders, who know little about the Vietnam War or the protests that led to the Tinker ruling.
So to make it up to date and locally relevant to the students, I also use a court case from less than 10 years ago in our neighboring community of Webb City, Missouri. A gay high school student sued the school district after he was not allowed to wear a t-shirt signifying his "gay pride" or one that had the logo of the Gay-Straight Alliance organization he had belonged to at the school he had attended before transferring to Webb City.
The student's case was dismissed after he dropped out of school, but one of his friends, who was not gay, took the challenge, wore pro-gay clothing, was sent home, sued the school, and ended up with an out-of-court settlement that forced the school district to change its policies about clothing being used for political statements.
For the last few years, this has been an engaging topic for my students and has resulted in some thoughtful papers, with students making well-reasoned arguments for both sides.
I may never teach that case again.
If I even mention the Webb City case next year, I may very well be breaking the law.
A bill filed March 29 in the Missouri House of Representatives and sent to the Elementary and Secondary Education Committee April 18 would prohibit any discussion of sexual orientation in the classroom.
Not withstanding any other law to the contrary, no instruction, material, or extracurricular activity sponsored by a public school that discusses sexual orientation other than in scientific instruction concerning human reproduction shall be provided in any public school.
HB 2051 is sponsored by Rep. Steve Cookson, R-Fairdealing, and has 19 GOP co-sponsors, including the two most powerful leaders in the House, Speaker Steve Tilley and Majority Leader Tim Jones (yes, the same Tim Jones who is a plaintiff in Orly Taitz' birther lawsuits), who is poised to become Speaker of the House in 2013 since Tilley is term-limited.
The 2012 legislative session in Missouri has been an all-out attack on public schools and public school teachers, as it has been in many states. On Thursday, the Senate tabled discussion on a bill that would make teachers wait 10 years to receive tenure, the longest such time in the nation. One reason it was tabled is because there were several Republican legislators who wanted tenure eliminated, not amended.
But Steve Cookson's bill is even worse. Cookson and his co-sponsors are saying that if gay marriage, for example, or Don't Ask, Don't Tell become campaign issues in this year's presidential election, they cannot be discussed in high school government classes. Laws that are proposed in the state legislature itself would also be off-limits for discussion. Under Cookson's reactionary law, teachers would be unable to address the kind of bullying that often takes place because of students' sexual orientation.
It is likely that Cookson's bill came as a result of the recent settlement in a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union against the Camdenton, Missouri, School District, on behalf of a student who had been unable to access informational websites about gay issues because the district's filtering system blocked them, even while students had access to anti-gay sites and even some websites featuring explicit sex.
The lawsuit was settled with the district modifying its filtering system to allow access to informational websites, but that decision was met with scorn by many in the Camdenton community and apparently, some in the Missouri legislature.
While there are many who could have filed the bill whose names would not have surprised me, the fact that Cookson is the sponsor is a revelation -- since Cookson is a retired public school teacher, coach, and administrator. His House biography also notes that Cookson's parents were schoolteachers.
And now if this former teacher, who has spent much of his life with and around educators, has his way, the game will change forever in Missouri schools. The students will still have their constitutional rights -- it is the teachers who will have to shed theirs at the door.
Follow Randy Turner on Twitter: www.twitter.com/rturner229
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Knowledge of issues tends to remove fear, leading to acceptance and respect. Unfortunately, it seems some people are too afraid of their children growing up without sharing their prejudices.
That's what the whole thing is about.
I'm starting to think that some people just want kids to be dumb so they're less of a challenge; it's like they're afraid the hard questions are going to be really hard!!!
It's been referred to the Elementary and Secondary Education Committee.
Despite its brevity, its intent is overarching: "Notwithstanding any other law to the contrary, no instruction, material, or extracurricular activity sponsored by a public school that discusses sexual orientation other than in scientific instruction concerning human reproduction shall be provided in any public school."
This legislation has been carefully engineered by a minority of Republican law-makers to:
1) Erode the United States' First Amendment guarantee of Freedom of Speech to Missourians by making free speech a "state's rights" issue.
2) Prohibit colleges and universities and other public educational institutions from discussing gay and lesbian issues, except in scientific instruction (currently undefined by the State).
3) Outlaw Gay-Straight Alliances from meeting on public educational premises as approved extracurricular entities.
If you're a Missouri resident, please contact your state officials and encourage them to oppose this legislation: http://www.senate.mo.gov/llookup/leg_lookup.aspx
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[1] http://legiscan.com/gaits/text/619834
Bullying starts here.
Sounds like a set up for very selective enforcement at best, and blatant institutionalized discrimination.
I have long thought those ancient priests who put prohibitions into the Torah were simply exalting their own distastes and saying they were God's rules. There might have been a priest who simply didn't like getting served shellfish, and what he said somehow got turned into a divine prohibition.
A lot of Republicans are uncomfortable around gays, and rather than address their own discomfort, they pass laws to prevent them from being exposed to gays. They pass laws to protect their prejudices, and then defend those laws as if they were God's laws.
At which point I will contact the ACLU and inform them that I feel harassed, threatened, and bullied by the words and actions of almost all members of my state legislature due to their aggressive assaults on women's freedom.
A law cuts both ways. Hatred, repression, and abuse should never be family values.
I'll try this once. Imagine if you suddenly found that the community around you had all gone pacifist. Anti-war. And that the school board then made it illegal to mention war in any way in the classroom. And that Career Day is coming up, and your son wanted to bring his grandfather, a decorated veteran. A good man, with an honorable career. But you have to tell him no, he can't, because it violates a law.
How would you feel?