Just one more bit of neanderthal bias on the part of someone who should not be running a school.
From the website for the San Diego chapter of the ACLU (emphasis added):
Wrongly citing a school policy on sex education, a California school illegally censored a sixth grader’s classroom presentation about Harvey Milk earlier this month. According to a demand letter sent by the American Civil Liberties Union to the Ramona Unified School District today, the school violated Natalie Jones’s free speech rights when it refused to allow her to give the presentation in class. Instead, the school improperly required classmates to get parental permission to see the presentation during a lunch recess.
“This whole thing is unbelievable – first my daughter got called into the principal’s office as if she were in some kind of trouble, and then they treated her presentation like it was something icky,” said Bonnie Jones, mother of the Mt. Woodson Elementary School student. “Harvey Milk was an elected official in this state and an important person in history. To say my daughter’s presentation is ‘sex education’ because Harvey Milk happened to be gay is completely wrong.”
Yup. The principal decided that since San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk was gay, any presentation about him and his campaign for basic civil rights for lesbians and gay men must be about sex. Natalie’s written report scored 49 out of 50 points. The second part of the assignment was to prepare a Power Point presentation to show classmates. I guess the principal – and the superintendent – didn’t mind the written word, seen only by the teacher, but visuals about gay people? Um, must be about sex.
The superintendent told her mom that
Natalie couldn’t give her presentation because of a district board policy on “Family Life/Sex Education.” A few days later, the school sent letters to parents of students in the class, explaining that her presentation would be held during a lunch recess on May 8, and that students could only attend if they had parental permission.
Un. Frackin’. Believable.
In case anyone needs it spelled out, the ACLU has parsed it:
“Writing or talking about a gay historical figure who advocated for equal rights for LGBT Californians is in no way the same thing as talking about sex, and school officials should not pretend otherwise. … This school completely overstepped its bounds in trying to silence Natalie Jones by shunting her presentation off to a lunch recess time and misusing a school policy to justify requiring parental permission to see it.”
Gosh, ya think this is what the “Gathering Storm” zombies were talking about?
NanuqFC
Fear of corrupting the mind of the younger generation is the loftiest form of cowardice. ~ Holbrook Jackson (1874-1948)
The Neanderthals called, and they are insulted and demand an apology for your attemp to link them with such a backwards, devolved, uncivilized group as the Ramona Unified School District.
Further evidence that roughly half of this country is marching steadfastly backwards into the provincial past.
May 22 is Harvey Milk’s birthday. He would be 79 years old today if he had lived. California’s legislature is considering making it a “Day of Recognition” or some such designation short of a state holiday.
His now-famous line was “My name is Harvey Milk and I’m here to recruit you!” – into political activism to get equal rights, that is. People who knew him suggest that he would be proud of our progress toward equality, but not yet satisfied that we’ve “arrived.”
And, don’t forget, the manslaughter verdict and seven-year prison sentence against ex-supervisor Dan White for assassinating 48-year-old Supervisor Harvey Milk and San Francisco Mayor George Moscone came down 30 years ago yesterday.
NanuqFC
We must accept finite disappointment, but we must never lose infinite hope. – MLK, Jr.