Teachers instructed in ‘gay’ inclusion

By Julie Foster

Teachers at a Massachusetts high school are being encouraged to “work
on [their] own biases” against homosexuality in order to create a “safe
zone” for students struggling with sexuality issues.

A handout distributed to all faculty of the

Springfield High
School of Science and Technology
lists 11 suggestions “to protect the most maligned victims in today’s society — the gay, lesbian and bisexual students.”

Titled “What teachers can do to make schools safe for lesbians, gays and bisexuals,” the guidelines were accompanied by two news articles and a cover letter from advisers to the Gay-Straight Alliance, a student club that deals with sexuality issues. The letter stated, “Please read it and put it to use if you will.”

Some of the guidelines include general suggestions, such as, “Make it clear that harassment of and discrimination against gay, lesbian and bisexual students will not be tolerated in your classrooms, in the hallway, or anywhere else at your place of employment.”

Others, however, were more specific, pertaining to curriculum and personal beliefs, including:

  • Make your curriculum inclusive of gay, lesbian and bisexual people by including GLB [gay, lesbian and bisexual] components in a variety of ways in a variety of courses;
  • Inform yourself about the needs of and resources for gay, lesbian and bisexual students. Learn about and refer to community organizations. Familiarize yourself with current resources and call them before you refer to make sure they are ongoing. Also, become aware of gay-themed bibliographies and refer to gay-positive books;
  • Have something gay-related visible in your office. A poster, a flyer, a brochure, a book, a button, a bumper sticker. … This will identify you as a safe person to talk to and will hopefully allow a gay, lesbian, bisexual or questioning youth to break his/her silence. SAFE ZONE CAMPAIGN stickers and resources can provide this visibility;
  • Normalize and validate students’ feelings about their sexuality. Let them know that you support and believe them. If you cannot be supportive, please refer to someone who can be. Then work on your own biases by reading, learning and talking to people comfortable with this issue.

Teachers are also encouraged to use “inclusive language that implicitly allows for gay, lesbian and bisexual possibilities by using ‘parent’ rather than ‘mother’ or ‘father,’ ‘spouse’ or ‘partner’ rather than ‘wife’ or ‘husband,’ etc.”

Critics of the guidelines say “safe schools” efforts are being used as fronts for promotion of the homosexual lifestyle.

“We can’t ignore the fact that kids get picked on and harassed,” said Ed Vitagliano, spokesman for the

American Family Association.
“Schools should teach kids to respect everyone — kids that are overweight, kids from different socio-economic backgrounds or even kids who self-identify as gay or lesbian. The solution is to enforce school policies which forbid verbal and physical harassment, not specifically indoctrinating kids about homosexuality.”

“Homosexual activists, however, aren’t interested in a compromise position,” he continued. “And this demonstrates that the school-safety issue is a smoke screen for a broader agenda. If it wasn’t, activists would be only too happy to recognize and respect the moral and religious views of parents who don’t want their kids taught about homosexuality.”

Vitagliano told WorldNetDaily the American Family Association is “not surprised at this latest attempt to push this agenda unashamedly on teachers who may be uncomfortable with it.”

“The attempt to portray resistance to this new policy as a bias or homophobia is standard operating procedure for homosexual activists. It’s an attempt to intimidate and coerce teachers so that they will fall in line with this push in elementary schools,” he said.

Massachusetts has long been seen as a leader in public acceptance of homosexuality, having both the Governor’s Task Force on Hate Crimes and the Safe Schools Project.

The state came under fire in March after a parent audio-recorded a class titled “What They Didn’t Tell You About Queer Sex and Sexuality in Health Class: Workshop for Youth Only, Ages 14-21.” The presentation, held at

Tufts University
on March 25 and led by two state employees, was part of a seminar for the community sponsored by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network.


As reported in WorldNetDaily,
the state employees were recorded giving graphic and explicit instruction in homosexual sex practices to teenagers.

Though officials in the Department of Education

condemned the
specific actions of the state workers,
advocates of the program insist such seminars are necessary to protect students.

Attached to the guidelines given to teachers in Springfield just two days after the seminar were two news articles describing acts of violence and harassment against students.

In one case, three students were charged with assault and civil-rights violations after they taunted a fellow student on the bus for several weeks, saying she was a “lesbian.” While the students were waiting for the bus after school, the three teen-agers attacked the victim, causing head and internal injuries, according to the report.

“We think it’s wonderful when schools work on training their staff on issues related to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youth,” said Andrea Hildebran, public education director of

Gay & Lesbian
Advocates & Defenders.

“GLBT kids take a lot of harassment and violence in schools. It’s great that there are some school districts that have gone to the effort of trying to make sure they have a completely safe experience and safe opportunity to access education like everybody else,” she said.

Responding to Vitagliano’s statement about “safe school” programs being used as “smoke screens,” Hildebran explained, “There are many different circumstances in which kids get harassed, but a big one is because kids are gay. If they have to be cautious about revealing their sex identity or their concerns about their sexual identity where they know they’re going to face homophobia, that’s a huge barrier to getting any help facing what can be very violent harassment.”

She added, “The kind of harassment we’re talking about isn’t neutral. It is because of perceived sexual orientation. If the adults responsible for helping kids don’t understand the issues, they’re not going to be much help.”

Faculty at the Springfield High School of Science and Technology were unavailable for comment.

Related stories:


State condemns ‘gay’ sex discussion


Public employees teach kids ‘gay’ sex


‘Gay-Straight’ group wins court battle

Julie Foster

Julie Foster is a contributing reporter for WorldNetDaily. Read more of Julie Foster's articles here.