Generation Recreation
Wyoming School’s Anti-Hate Program Reveals Intolerance
"No Place for Hate" is merely an umbrella program about tolerance. But in one school district, even that is intolerable.By Michael Pearlman, 2-08-10
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Last week in Washington DC, the Senate Armed Services committee held hearings to consider rescinding the U.S. military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy regarding gay soldiers. At the same time, one Wyoming school district has decided to adopt an attitude most accurately described as “Let’s pretend gay people don’t even exist.”
Since being implemented in 1993, the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy has proved itself a classic government comprise that wound up an abject failure. In the ensuing 17 years, over 13,000 people have been ejected from the military and have watched their careers disintegrate thanks to this policy. These soldiers might be doing their job perfectly and keeping their private life private, but it didn’t matter. The U.S. is once again behind much of the rest of the world in addressing this issue- Britain repealed their “no gays in the military” policy ten years ago. Now it appears the U.S. military will need to study the issue for another year before implementing any changes.
Compared to the military, I’d like to think of Wyoming’s public schools as slightly more tolerant. Our state received plenty of negative national attention in the wake of the Matthew Shepard murder, and we’re hardly a bastion of diversity. Ninety-six percent of Wyoming residents are white and 79 percent are Christian, according to the 2000 U.S. census, and our schools largely reflect that homogeneity. If there was ever a place that needed to make a special effort to teach diversity in the schools because of a lack of firsthand examples, it’s Wyoming. Unfortunately one local school board recently decided that it’s students would be better served by not being reminded that there exists a wide range of people in our country that might not be like them.
In Wheatland, Wyoming, the school district initially elected to participate in a campaign titled “No Place for Hate” sponsored by the Anti Defamation League of Colorado. At Wheatland High School and Elementary School, banners were displayed as part of the campaign, which “empowers schools to promote respect for individual and group differences while challenging prejudice and bigotry.” Though the banners had hung in two of the district’s schools since September, last month the Platte County School District Board of Trustees voted 4-3 to remove the banners. The reason? On the bottom of the banner were the names of the sponsors of the program, which included The Gay and Lesbian Coalition of Colorado.
Not surprisingly, the school board’s decision has attracted quite a bit of attention. A story that ran in the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle has now garnered nearly 300 comments, and I was pleased to see that many community members and school alumni indicated their disappointment and embarrassment over the school board’s decision. However, some residents clearly support the decision, which appeared to have been spurred by parent complaints.
Interestingly, not one of the Colorado schools participating in the No Place for Hate program had a problem with the banners. The regional director of the Anti-Defamation League immediately recognized the hypocrisy of the Wheatland school board’s decision and made the obvious call: If the banners don’t stay up, don’t bother participating in the program. Wheatland, a district that clearly needs a program like this, is no longer participating.
Public schools should be a place where tolerance and respect are taught, and ideally that philosophy should come from the top down. There should be a unified message from administration, school boards and teachers encouraging acceptance, regardless of race or sexual orientation. The moment a school board makes a decision like the one Wheatland did, it sends a troubling message to the entire school community. The “No Place for Hate” program doesn’t require the school to raise a rainbow flag out front, or mandate the establishment of gay student groups or even endorse any curriculum. It’s merely an umbrella program to encourage and support tolerance.
If a trustee feels so threatened by the words gay and lesbian and is so swayed by community pressure that they think it’s a better idea for students to bury their heads in the sand, those trustees might be better off serving on the school board of a private religious school. Covering students’ eyes so they won’t be reminded that homosexuals exist somewhere in the big, bad outside world is a poor strategy for helping teenagers become tolerant, well-adjusted adults. Hopefully, the federal government will finally overturn don’t ask don’t tell so our soldiers can serve honorably without fear of reprisals over their sexuality. And hopefully, when those four Platte County School District trustees are up for re-election, Wheatland’s residents will repudiate prejudice at the voting booth.
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Comments
"If a trustee feels so threatened by the words gay and lesbian and is so swayed by community pressure" .........
"Community pressure", as you put,is what should run schools. Whether you agree or not, parents have a right to have thier children taught the kind of values they want instilled in them. If you want these parents to put their kids in private schools, suport school vouchers. As long as you force children to stay in public schools, thier parents should have a right to choose the values they're being taught, whether you beliveve they're acceptable or not. If they don't want to display the banner, they don't participate in the program.
Public schools should be a place where reading, writing and arithmetic are taught. Values should be left to the parents and the churches.
Think of the attempts made thorughout our history to eliminate valid scientific theories from public schools or the censorship of books discussing aspects of our society that make us uncomfortable.
If public opinion was the only thing determing what gets taught in schools, it wouldn't just be about eliminating things like diversity workshops. Some pretty odd stuff would be inserted into the curriculum as well and not all of it would be to the benefit of the students.
Having programs that teach the value of equality shouldn't be a problem for people sending their kids to schools that are supposed to be based on this nation's value system.
It's a very unfortunate situation, however you look at it. I feel most sorry for the kids of the intolerant parents. When they grow up, they may be able to get by in Wheatland, but they'll have a tough time adjusting to the rest of the world.
Then I guess blacks should still be attending black only and whites white only schools? Interracial marriage should still be illegal? Women should not be allowed to serve in the military?
PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This really IS the 21st Century. America's states should join it.
With respect, your approach is pretty cynical.
Equality is discussed in the Constitution, that's what I meant by this nation's value system. Considering that, what is the problem with teaching kids about diversity?
If it's the specific method of teaching or exposure that you don't like, I get that. Sometimes it's over the top. But the fundemental concept can't really be debated unless we prefer to shelter our kids from reality.
People living "alternative lifestyles" or whatever you want to call it, are not going away so we shouldn't pretend they don't exist.
Homosexuality has been around for thousands of years, in many societies. Greece, Sparta, Rome, ancient Japan, etc.
Any doctor will tell you anal intercourse is physically dangerous, which an overwhelming number of male homosexuals engage in. That is not hateful. It is not bigoted. It is a fact.
The lifestyle is a deterrent to society like various other types of immorality. Acting like that isn't the case is not being "open-minded," it's just refusing to acknowledge facts and history.
The idea that everyone in the military who is opposed to open homosexuality is a homophobe, bigot, etc, is just intellectual weakness on your part. You refuse to accept that anyone who disagrees with you may actually have a point, but instead, have to denigrate them and shout them down. No military that has open homosexuality is anything close to a strong military. Israel, which is always touted as the example, was spanked by Hezbollah just a few years ago. Many of the European ones are more civil servants in uniforms than anything else.
There is nothing but arrogance on display here, to think that something that has not worked for thousands of years can suddenly work. That's like running into a wall a thousand times and expecting a difference.