Freedom Writer - September 1995

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Massachusetts school meets challenge

By Janice Doppler

During the fall of 1993, a Safe Schools Task Force (SSTF) was formed 
at Hampshire Regional High School in rural western Massachusetts, 
in response to a recommendation by the state's Department of Education 
encouraging schools to develop policies protecting gay and lesbian 
students from harassment, violence, and discrimination. The program 
offers training to school personnel in violence prevention and suicide 
prevention; and offers school-based support groups for gay, lesbian 
and heterosexual students; and provides school-based counseling for 
family members of gay and lesbian students. 

Then, in March 1994, a provision protecting students from discrimination 
based on sexual orientation was added to an existing state non-discrimination 
law. In its first year of operation the Safe Schools Task Force drafted 
a Mission Statement on Diversity and mailed a survey to parents before 
beginning planning programs. Task Force members also intended to survey 
staff and students. Top administrators voiced strong support for the 
program.

The act of informing parents and asking for their opinions triggered 
controversy when a small, vocal group of parents insisted the program 
was unnecessary and immoral, and voiced fear that parents' rights 
would be usurped. It seems strange that this fear surfaced in response 
to a simple survey asking parents about their attitudes and opinions.

Those in opposition to the program used many of the typical tactics 
suggested by national Religious Right think tanks. For example, they 
sent (and continue to send) a stream of emotionally charged letters 
to the editor, a tactic used to create the appearance of a larger 
group of opposition than actually exists. They claimed to represent 
most parents when, in fact, no group chose them as their representatives. 
They frequently demanded documents from the school administration 
which consumed large amounts of time.

They allege that SSTF plans were made behind parents' backs. They 
circulated the homophobic videotape, The Gay Agenda, among school 
committee members, and distributed information linking "the homosexual 
agenda" with bringing pedophiles into the school at school committee 
and other meetings. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services statistics 
about youth suicide were called inflammatory and were countered with 
information from Gary Bauer's Family Research Council, an organization 
affiliated with Focus on the Family. The open-meeting law was used 
to challenge the legality of SSTF meetings.

Other tactics used by those in opposition to the program included 
misrepresenting what educators say, then criticizing the misrepresentations 
rather than the actual statement, and quoting background material 
given to teachers or planning groups, then representing it as something 
intended for students. 

Both tactics were used in a letter mailed to all parents in the school 
system by a group called Citizens for Responsible Education. For example, 
an administrator attending a Task Force meeting asked whether the 
program would be extended to the elementary schools. He was told it 
was a possibility at some time in the future, since there are students 
with lesbian or gay male parents in the elementary schools, but that 
it had never been discussed. That response was misrepresented as an 
intention to teach about homosexuality in the elementary schools without 
informing parents.

The letter also quoted background material given to SSTF members as 
if it were specific plans of the SSTF. In addition to this misinformation, 
the letter falsely charged that the Task Force was planning a "gender 
bender" week during which students would cross-dress.

Written and verbal attacks were leveled at the superintendent of schools 
and the high school principal because a Safe Schools training program 
at a faculty meeting was closed to the public, and at the health education 
coordinator, charging that she established a pattern of secrecy and 
deception in her administration of the Safe Schools program. In addition, 
a man claiming he was discriminated against because he was a heterosexual 
male filed a complaint against the school district with the Massachusetts 
Commission Against Discrimination.

Possibly the most difficult challenge to programs sponsored by the 
SSTF occurred when Northampton-based Gregory Hession of the Rutherford 
Institute, a Virginia-based Religious Right legal organization, challenged 
the legality of a series of assemblies planned for students during 
which author Warren Blumenfeld was to speak about how homophobia hurts 
all people in the school setting.

Hession claimed that if homosexual behavior was promoted at the assemblies, 
the school district would be guilty of statutory rape. He threatened 
to file suit to request an injunction to stop the assemblies. His 
threat had to be taken seriously, since in 1992 Hession filed (and 
lost) a lawsuit for $3.5 million after a "safer sex" assembly at the 
high school in Chelmsford, Massachusetts.

At that point, it would have been very easy for the school committee 
to decide to cancel the assemblies since the small, rural school district 
could ill-afford to be involved in a costly legal battle. Instead 
of falling prey to the threat, the school committee held its ground. 
A litigation sub-committee was formed to deal with any legal issues 
growing from the Safe Schools Program, and a lawyer was retained. 
Hession did not file suit.

The school committee's strong stand made it possible to continue making 
the school safer for gay and lesbian students. Since the mid-May assemblies, 
there has been a marked decrease in anti-gay and lesbian name calling 
in the school. As the school becomes safer for this group of students, 
it becomes safer for all students who are different from the mainstream 
for any reason.

_Janice_Doppler_is_the_health_education_coordinator_for_the_Hampshire_
Regional_School_District._She_is_a_member_of_the_Massachusetts_Health_
Curriculum_Framework_Development_Committee._She_is_also_a_doctoral_
student_in_social_justice_education_at_the_University_of_Massachusetts._

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