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Contributors
Patrick
Mallon -
Columnist
 California
School Stages Gay "Marriages"
The progressive educational agenda marches on...
[Patrick Mallon] 2/18/05
Leave it
to a California high school, a charter member of a state now
ranked 48th out of 50 states in academic proficiency, to demonstrate
exactly why so many parents are pulling their kids out of government
educational institutions.
Silverado High School, located in the city of Victorville in the California high-desert
region, has had its share of student-body challenges, most recently an outbreak
of racially motivated fisticuffs between black and Latino students during an
assembly on February 4.
"It
was divided along racial lines," said Superintendent
Greg Lundeen, of the Victor Valley Union High School District. "A
lot of the issues are from students that are new to the area
and new to the system."
This wasn't
just a simple fight. The incident involved a reported 100 students.
A similar fracas, involving 75 students, erupted last October,
resulting in the suspension of 32, and the cancellation of
assemblies for the remainder of the school year.
But this account isn't about California's ethnic tensions, nor about out-of-control
immigration impacting school demographics, it's about the pro-gay indoctrination
of impressionable children, and apparent disdain government officials have
for the rights of parents and for California voters.
On Friday, February 11 (Valentine's Day weekend), 18 gay students were united,
married in "mock gay marriages," with the permission of Silverado
Principal Susan Levine. The local district attorney also gave the green light
to the Gay-Straight Alliance event.
On Saturday, February 12, the LA Times reported in "Gay 'Weddings'
at School Protested," that: "Mock gay marriages of 18 students at
Silverado High School on Friday drew dozens of angry community and parent protesters
to a campus already plagued by controversy.
"The
lunchtime 'wedding' ceremonies of six female couples and
three male couples in the school's outdoor central gathering
area were part of a demonstration by members of the school's
Gay-Straight Alliance in support of same-sex marriage and
to mark National Freedom to Marry Day today. The day was
declared by a gay and non-gay partnership advocating same-sex
marriage."
The Times made
sure to include in the story subhead the important qualifier: "No
violence is reported at the Victorville campus."
Where Do Wishes of Parents Fit In?
In the California educational system, where tolerance, safe schools, and diversity
are code words for progressive indoctrination, parents need to be engaged and
informed on where government officials are taking their children.
Back in August 2002, I reported for NewsMax what former Governor Gray Davis
and then California State Superintendent of Public Instruction Delaine Eastin
were doing with school curricula and implementation of "safe schools" laws
passed by the far-Left legislature in "Stealth
Agenda Trumps Academic Success in Schools,"
The issues and questions were as important then, as they are urgent now:
Do you, the parent, have a moral right, based upon your beliefs, to decide
when, where and how sexual orientation will be described to your children?
Should "safe schools" be measured by the effectiveness of preventing
guns, drugs or teen pregnancy from ruining young lives? Or should school safety
be determined by reducing mental trauma caused to the still unknown numbers
of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and transsexual students?
Are we in fact being led by agenda-driven demagogues who exploit your children
to increase their power?
The following laws are influencing California classrooms now:
- Assembly
Bill 1785: Hate Crimes. Requires all schoolchildren to be
taught acceptance of homosexual behavior beginning in the
elementary grades.
- Senate
Bill 225: Hate Crimes and Schools. Requires junior and senior
high schools to adopt "non-discrimination" policies
including "sexual orientation" (that's gay, lesbian,
bisexual, transsexuals and transgender students) or be prevented
from participating in sporting events.
- Assembly
Bill 537: The California Student Safety and Violence Protection
Act. Adds actual or perceived sexual orientation and gender
identity to state nondiscrimination policy.
In the spirit
of "fostering appreciation" for diversity, superintendent
Eastin took it upon herself to form an unauthorized 36-member
advisory task force to translate AB 537 into state Education
Codes. Here are several of the recommendations:
- Survey
children to probe their attitudes about homosexuality.
- Incorporate
pro-homosexual and pro-transgender language into "all" curricula,
including science, history, language arts and even math.
- Prominently
display sexual orientation and gender identity anti-discrimination
posters on campuses.
- Fund and
place on each campus a person knowledgeable about sexual
orientation and gender identity issues to ensure AB 537 compliance.
Now, three
years later, things have gotten more out of control, especially
in divided schools like Silverado.
According
to a Victorville Daily Press report the day before
the February 11 event "Mock gay weddings at Silverado," February
10:
"Roxana
O'Harra, the mother of three Silverado students, is organizing
a protest against the simulated weddings.
"O'Harra's children plan to join others who disagree with same-sex marriage
to protest the ceremonies. Dissenting students plan to wear red T-shirts ˜ the
color of courage, they say ˜ and stand with their backs to the ceremony
with signs reading "I don't" ˜ meant to oppose the "I dos" that
are the traditional vows of a wedding ceremony, O'Harra said.
"The fact that the Gay-Straight Alliance Club is conducting a mock gay wedding
of students on campus ˜ an event that factually opposes the initiative passed
into law by the California voters ˜ is outrageous and demoralizing to the
institution of marriage," O'Harra said.
Academics
Subordinated to Chaos
After discovering the continuing theatre at this school, I began to wonder
whether I was reading about a prison, a site for sensitivity training, or a
Gay-Straight assembly, but in no sense did the academic purpose of education
ever enter the picture.
After the most recent fights at Silverado earlier this month, the students
were hurriedly commandeered to the buildings housing their sixth period classes.
Some teachers had videotaped the fighting in order to identify pugilists, then
later set aside their cameras and participated in the lockdown mode. Eventually
buses were assembled to usher the students to their homes.
I truly feel for the parents, caught up in the daily battle of work and paying
bills while striving to prepare a solid future for their kids. There are so
many social ills impacting the delivery of a quality education that few in
government have the courage to identify core problems, focus on priorities
we all used to take for granted, and defend the values that were once the bedrock
of a now silenced educational ethos.
In the meantime, increasingly irrelevant legislators in Sacramento disdain
reality, and stay quiet about an imploding educational crisis. Our governor
tiptoes around the deeper demographic, language, and cultural issues and instead
focuses his rhetoric on merit pay for teachers.
At least there was one irrefutable comment within the fray. Silverado Principal
Susan Levine said that she could not guarantee the safety of the participants
in the mock weddings. Nonetheless, the "nuptials" were conducted
with only one incident; an egg was hurled during vows.
If this is what things have really come to in California schools, then we had
better be prepared for more than just bad grades.
CRO
Patrick
Mallon is a political journalist and author of California
Dictatorship: How Liberal Extremism Destroyed Gray Davis.
[read an excerpt]. Patrick
is a regular guest on talk radio programs throughout
the state
and nationally. His website is at PatrickMallon.com and
can be contacted at patrick@patrickmallon.com
copyright
2005 Patrick Mallon
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