(Montgomery County, MD) Schools required to distribute 'ex-gay' literature;

[PageOneQ]

Schools required to distribute 'ex-gay' literature

WASHINGTON -- Some suburban Washington, DC high schools are being forced to hand out anti-gay literature from a group that aims to "cure homosexuals," PageOneQ has learned.

The flyers, produced by Parents and Friend of Ex-Gays (P-FOX), will be the sole information distributed to students on February 1st. Wayne Besen (r.), president of Truth Wins Out an organization that dispels myths of the so-called 'ex-gay' movement, immediately condemned the move.

FULL STORY: http://www.pageoneq.com/news/2006/ex022307.html

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

1. I find it hard to believe as Montgomery County is one of the more liberal areas around.

However, depending on what wingnuts get elected to schoolboard, you never know.

[Hieronymus]

5. As I recall one of the "ex gay" leaders of that group ..

who was married to an "ex lesbian" was fired because he was frequenting gay bars.:eyes:

[depakid]

12. Once upon a time they were also one of the top public school districts

in the nation.

I know, because I went there through 9th grade. When my family moved to California, the kids I met(and many of the of the teachers) were clueless. I mean really clueless.

We'd already had a year of required biology, chemistry & physics -a foreign language and history and geography.

These kids had only had the most basic (and I mean basic) "social studies" or perhaps an optional 1 year science class. You should have seen what they read in 10th grade English! It was actually sort of scary.

Even the AP classes were a joke- this at Palisades High, supposedly among the top (and certainly one of the wealthiest) schools in Southern California.

How things change.

Montgomery County public school teachers took the time to help dyslexics like me excel- even though we didn't fit the molds- and they were there for other kids too- kids with different deals, that no one knew much about what the deals were at the time.

Looking back- I can see: they cared a lot- and they were very cool. So to them- all of them, administrators and teachers alike, I and many others owe a huge debt of gratitude.

I hope that we can pass it forward.

[noel adamson]

16. They were considered the top school system in the country when I..

... went through in the 1950s and '60s. It was hard to get a job teaching there because of the high standards but teachers were paid very well.

That we should allow these nut cases to force their insane and hate filled dogma on our kids is not just an affront to us all but a further degradation of our culture towards a complete idiocracy. I live in California now and raised my son here. It didn't take me long to take him out of school and home school him. Even without being prepared to undertake the task his knowledge and reasoning abilities are way above the norm for this area.

The assault on intelligence in America is real and I think consciously supported by the corporate fascists who run it for the same reason that the church forbade reading and writing during oppressive segments of European history and it was illegal to teach slaves to write and read in the old south. No intelligent and educated person would vote for the likes of Bush and one of my favorite links is to this pages which compares, state by state, average IQ, money spent on education and who they voted for in the 2004 presidential race. http://www.mindfully.org/Reform/2004/US-Election-IQ2004.htm

They want the "sucker born every minute" to remain suckers throughout their life time.

[DavidMS]

20. I graduated from a Montgomery County School in '98

and it was an excellent school.

However, that does not change that the policy is boneheaded.

Best solution would be to require the organization to first wave 1st amendment rights regarding any misstatement of fact contained in the flyer. Anyone from a qualified organization can distribute anything but it must be demonstrated as true via experimental observation.

[Blue_Tires]

23. it doesn't really suprise me

I used to live and work in Prince George's County (right next to Montgomery) and even though it was a generally liberal county, the church leaders had a LOT of political sway in the schools....

[ck4829]

2. Hey, wait a second!

I always heard it was the gay folks who were spreading information in school!

:sarcasm:

[WindRavenX]

3. forced? Required?

How...and why?

[AX10]

4. Required?

:wtf:

[donco6]

6. Here's why:

Montgomery County Public Schools spokesman Brian Edwards said that it is the school district's policy to distribute flyers from any non-profit or religious institution, regardless of the flyer's content. "The situation is brought to us by a Fourth Circuit of Appeals ruling declaring parts of the previous flyer policy unconstitutional. The Board of Education had little choice but to allow flyers to be distributed in the manner in which they decided," Edwards said.

The school district, based in an affluent suburb of the nation's capital, has a policy regarding the distribution of informational fliers. This policy, obtained by PageOneQ, is meant to provide an avenue for community groups, especially non-profit organizations, to inform students about events and activities taking place in the community. While school-sponsored organizations such as PTAs can distribute materials any time of the year, non-profit organizations are given only four specific days during the year to distribute flyers.

"Any organization meeting our guidelines may participate in the program," Cathy Pevey, of the district's Office of School Performance, told PageOneQ. The office is responsible for the development and administration of the policy. The organizational chart for the school's flyer policy has been obtained by PageOneQ and is reproduced below. The chart describes which organizations may distribute flyers at any time of the school year. Those groups are school clubs, government entities and educational related organizations like Parent Teacher Associations.

[WindRavenX]

8. Wow, that's...weird

Most schools won't let any groups do this...

[donco6]

9. I've never seen such a permissive policy.

Ours is very restrictive - pretty much the opposite.

[depakid]

14. That's actually consistent

with my recollections in Montgomery County, Maryland in the mid to late 70's.

Our schools had a very open environment. We weren't afraid of ideas. Some groups in those days passed out fliers about student rights- as per the law (Supreme Court decisions and other provisions) that would be anathema almost anywhere in the country today. You all wouldn't have believed what was allowed and discussed.

Quite the contrast to Reagan's "zero tolerance" bullshit. We wouldn't have recognized that as anything other than insanity. Or Stalinism.

Montgomery County schools taught (or tried hard to teach) critical thinking- they taught us how to analyze- which as we know, is a skill that's increasing been lacking over the past 25 years.

[WindRavenX]

15. yeah, same here

NO outside groups could give leaflets.

[jtrockville]

18. What about booster clubs? PTAs?

If you allow these groups to distribute flyers, you have to allow the wackos do it too. Let's hope the students are being educated well enough to discern the difference between information and lunacy.

[Redstone]

7. The kids'll just laught at is and throw it away.

Kids are smarter than rightwing fundies think they are.

Redstone

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

10. Having attended high school in Montgomery Co., I have little worry about the ability of the kids to

make appropriate use of such fliers.

[Redstone]

11. Good. My faith in that generation is not misplaced, then.

Redstone

[depakid]

13. Which high school did you go to?

In 9th grade, I actually got to attend Kennedy for my first morning class (which was optional Latin) then we kids got bussed back to E. Brooke Lee Jr. High. Someone told me that Lee got shut down, though maybe not.

http://www.msisoccer.org/?page=field-directions

Been a while since I've been back there....

[jtrockville]

19. Lee MS is alive and well... and Northwood HS recently reopened.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

21. Wootton.

[Burma Jones]

25. Yes indeedy.....

I live in Montgomery County, grew up here too. Basically, to avoid being sued by Right Wingers, the schools send home a pile of flyers several times a year, so it ends up being like those "Valu-Pak" envelopes full of local businesses' coupons, and, for the most part, they get thrown away.

We are a BIG target for Right Wing groups because we are solidly Democratic, there are now NO republicans at any level of elected Government in the County, we used to have a couple of Republican County Council Members, but they were swept away in the 2006 elections. We are very well educated, every single High School, both in the affluent, as well as the poorer areas of the County, rank in the top 1,000 High Schools in the US. Our Minority Students are more likely to be in AP courses than White students in the rest of the US. We are the Right Wing's worst nightmare, Liberals that have run a County for decades, and have been successful. We have about a Million people now, more than Eight States - and a lot of Money - and a lot of Democrats......So the Ignorami throw stones.....

[LynnTheDem]

17. Dear America;

GROW the fuck UP and enter the 20th Century!

Then let's try for the 21st.

Jeebus fucking Cripes.

[TechBear_Seattle]

22. By definition, this is all religious material

How the bloody hell can any public school be required to hand it out? Every last "ex-gay" movement is based almost exclusively on Christian fundamentalism; those that are not still rely on it very heavily.

I think I smell the rank odor of a First Amendment violation here.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

24. I suspect they're getting a BIT sly and removing overt references to Xtianity from the fliers.

Probably once you go to the website or the actual group meeting, then you get to hear the good news.

[Zhade]

26. This is a fucking violation of the separation of church and state!

AND it's a lie, because there is no such thing as "ex" gay - just as there's no such things as "ex" straight.

People are as they were born, you stupid asshole fundies.