Obama's 'gay' appointee: I'd handle student differently

Kevin Jennings

The homosexual activist picked by the Obama administration to oversee the Office of Safe Schools in the U.S. Department of Education now claims he should have handled a situation while he was a teacher involving a sexually active student "differently," but the statement from Kevin Jennings fails to express "regret."

WND has reported on Jennings' philosophies several times, including just days ago when the Washington Times encouraged him to "come clean" about his actions in the encounter with the 15-year-old student.

"A teacher was told by a 15-year-old high school sophomore that he was having homosexual sex with an 'older man.' At the very least, statutory rape occurred. Fox News reported that the teacher violated a state law requiring that he report the abuse. That former teacher, Kevin Jennings, is President Obama's 'safe school czar.' ... Clearly, the process for vetting White House employees has broken down," the Times editorial board said.

"In this one case in which Mr. Jennings had a real chance to protect a young boy from a sexual predator, he not only failed to do what the law required but actually encouraged the relationship."

WND first reported on Jennings' appointment and history in May, and today he issued a statement regarding his interactions with the student.

"Twenty-one years later I can see how I should have handled the situation differently. I should have asked for more information and consulted legal or medical authorities. Teachers back then had little training and guidance about this kind of thing. All teachers should have a basic level of preparedness. I would like to see the Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools play a bigger role in helping to prepare teachers," he said, expressing no regret over his actions but an intention to get his office involved in preparing teachers for such encounters.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan also released a statement at the same time praising Jennings.

"Kevin Jennings has dedicated his professional career to promoting school safety. He is uniquely qualified for his job and I’m honored to have him on our team," he said.

The Mission America ministry has documented Jennings' career extensively and said his biggest accomplishment has been founding the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network, which lobbies for homosexual activities in public schools.

"Mission America has called GLSEN a child corruption group from the outset. We took a hard look a few years back at the books GLSEN recommends for students. Most of the books we examined remain on GLSEN's list today on its web site. We also looked at one of its early curricula, 'Tackling Gay Issues in Schools.' GLSEN has never refuted any of our findings," the website says.

"This is the history of what Kevin Jennings is all about, and why he needs to be removed from this position immediately."

"Does Jennings mean he would call the cops this time? Hopefully, he would," said Linda Harvey of Mission America. "Meanwhile, there's a young man out there who could have used some professional intervention in his teens by a responsible teacher.

"And Jennings still has a lot of explaining to do about the materials GLSEN has recommended for years which wink at adult/adolescent homosexual relationships," she said.

In Jennings' own words he tells of the student who "'met someone in the bus station bathroom and I went home with him.' High school sophomore, 15 years old. That was the only way he knew how to meet gay people. I was a closeted gay teacher, 24 years old, didn't know what to say, knew I should say something quickly. So I finally, my best friend had just died of AIDS the week before, I looked at Brewster and said, 'You know, I hope you knew to use a condom.' He said to me something I will never forget, he said, 'Why should I, my life isn’t worth saving anyway.'"

On an ABC News blog, there was significant rage against Jennings.

"Unbelievable! As a teacher I am highly offended by those who are passing this off as he was 24 and admitted he made a mistake. The fact that at 24 he made that decision tells me a lot about him as a person and it is not someone I want leading anything in education. In most states ... it is against the law for a teacher to not report things like this and you usually take an oath that holds you to a higher standard regarding situations such as this," wrote one participant.

"We have truly been taken over by the liberal nut minority. We have Hollywood telling us how to let perverts use our kids and just walk away. They want us to give up our health care. They want to let our troops be in harm's way without support. They don't want people to be able to choose the school they want for their kids. They want to abort babies, and then if they survive, let them die," added another.

"This man will be gone by next Friday night at 12:00 pm. That bus must be a 4wd because there are a lot of people under it and it still runs," suggested another, referring to the middle-of-the-night resignation of another Obama adviser, Van Jones, who was linked to a movement expressing the belief the U.S. government was behind or at least allowed the 9/11 attacks.

WND also has reported how Jennings developed a strategy to use the word "safe" to bring the promotion of homosexuality into schools all across Massachusetts.

Fox News since then has written about Jennings' agenda, and now the Washington Times said, "The White House should force Mr. Jennings to come clean."

According to the Americans for Truth website run by Peter LaBarbera, the incident involving the 15-year-old was just one among a series of egregious behaviors by Jennings.

Another incident was the "fistgate" scandal in which his organization led discussions at a seminar where "young teens were guided on how to perform dangerous homosexual perversions including 'fisting,'" the website said.

Yet another was Jennings' address in a New York City church on March 20, 2000. He said:

"Twenty percent of people are hard-core fair-minded [pro-homosexual] people. Twenty percent are hard-core [anti-homosexual] bigots. We need to ignore the hard-core bigots, get more of the hard-core fair-minded people to speak up, and we’ll pull that 60 percent [of people in the middle] over to our side. That's really what I think our strategy has to be. We have to quit being afraid of the religious right. We also have to quit — I’m trying to find a way to say this. I’m trying not to say, '[F—] 'em!' which is what I want to say, because I don’t care what they think! [audience laughter] Drop dead!"

Jennings is among a number of Obama "czars" who have become controversial, including Jones.

Harvard professor Cass Sunstein, confirmed by the Senate as the administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs at the Office of Budget and Management, was exposed for his belief that animals should be given legal rights like humans.

Technically, Jennings is not one of Obama's "czars," who are special advisers to the president accountable to no one but the president. Jennings was named to a post in the Department of Education. However, his hiring did not require legislative oversight, such as the Senate vetting process required for other appointees.

WND reported on a speech Jennings gave in 1995 outlining his manipulation of words to obtain his aims.

Excerpts have been posted on the website of MassResistance, where chief Brian Camenker has worked to oppose the demands of homosexual activists.

In the speech, Jennings described how he was concerned about being described as promoting homosexuality, so he chose to campaign on the idea of "safety" instead.

"If the radical right can succeed in portraying us as preying on children, we will lose. Their language – 'promoting homosexuality' is one example – is laced with subtle and not-so-subtle innuendo that we are 'after their kids,'" he told the conference.

He continued, "In Massachusetts the effective reframing of this issue was the key to the success of the Governor's Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth. We immediately seized upon the opponent's calling card – safety – and explained how homophobia represents a threat to students' safety by creating a climate where violence, name-calling, health problems, and suicide are common. Titling our report 'Making Schools Safe for Gay and Lesbian Youth,' we automatically threw our opponents onto the defensive and stole their best line of attack. This framing short-circuited their arguments and left them back-pedaling from day one."

WND reported earlier when it became known that Jennings was appointed.

At the time, Harvey of Mission America, which educates people on anti-Christian trends in the nation, said it is nothing less than a "tragedy" for an open homosexual who has "had an enormously detrimental impact on the climate in our schools" to be in such a position.

Jennings also wrote the foreword for a book called "Queering Elementary Education: Advancing the Dialogue about Sexualities and Schooling."