This has been hard for me to write. I have switched emotions from anger, to sadness, to indignation, to disappointment…and I finally settled on driven. The ignorance and lack of desire to see outside of their little bubble hurt my heart. But it is time to pop their bubble and wake them from their self-induced slumber. I also ask you follow the fold to check the action items at the end.
This story came to my attention one Sunday at church here in Nashville. A friend of mine was in the sanctuary talking to our Pastor, very visibly upset. When he stepped in to the hallway, I asked him what was going on. He told me he didn’t have the strength to talk about it at that moment, but he said he would send me a Facebook message and fill me in. My mind supposed all kinds of bad scenarios, but I was way off the mark as to what was going on.
“It has been a very rough week or so…I had to remove a safe space GLSEN poster from my classroom that some of our kids posted. I complied but felt it unjust. As such, I asked for a legal explanation for the directive and was not given one…My kids were simply seeking a safe place.”
See more after the fold...
Allen is a teacher at Central Magnet School in Murfreesboro, TN, which is not far from Nashville. He teaches US History and contemporary issues. What happened is this…The school’s Gay Straight Alliance asked to post a sign designating the classroom a safe space for GLBT students. The sign was on the bulletin board for over a year before a parent saw the sign and complained to the school board about it. The school board, like much of Rutherford County, has drifted starkly conservative. (This area is represented by Scott DesJarlais in Congress.) They demanded it be removed.
Talking with him about this, I knew this was a tough position for him. His students needed someone to stand up and fight for them. Fortunately, a lot of teachers and many in the community support Allen as he stood up for them.
This past Wednesday, there was a school board meeting where this issue was under discussion. Supporters of the students wore purple, and the room was awash in purple. About 2/3 of the room were there in support of Allen and the GSA. There were around 30 students there, bringing the average age of supporters to be about 25-30.
The other third were primarily older, with an average age of 55-60. Many were obviously retired, but I will let the summaries of the statements below better describe the opposition.
There is not a transcript of the proceedings, so I will try to transcribe excerpts the best I can.
Here is the full school board meeting.
Allen stood up and spoke first. I transcribed his statement in full. Allen's portion starts at the 5:47 mark
Good evening. My name is Allen Nichols and I teach US History and Contemporary Issues at Central Magnet School. I am here to briefly address the GLSEN safe space poster issue as the poster's display came into question in my classroom. There are two major issues at hand in this incident: 1) student free speech and 2) supporting safe learning environments for all of our students.
Let's take free speech first. I want to first assert that the poster was not mine nor am I the sponsor of our school's GSA. Last year, students approached me requesting to display a safe zone poster on our classroom Tiger News bulletin board. After finding our administration's literal stamp of approval, I agreed. As I understood that I was not the only teacher asked to hang the poster, I agreed to display the poster the same as I would with FCA, First Priority, See-You-At-The-Pole, and other student groups. Through my work in this profession, I understand that under federal law schools are required to treat ALL clubs equally. Other clubs have been allowed to hang posters in classrooms, so I understood the GSA should be able to as well. I also want you to know that as an educator, I keep my personal political beliefs out of the classroom and encourage my students to express their own beliefs. Even in his letter of complaint, the parent who questioned the poster’s placement in my classroom conceded that we still had the right to display it.
The next issue at hand in this case is LGBT harassment and bullying. Creating a safe learning environment is important for all students. Anti-LGBT harassment and bullying is a real problem that hurts all students. Though the poster was not from a club I sponsor, it's certainly important that my classroom is a safe, supportive environment for all young people with whom I work. Isn't making more students feel safe at school something in which we should all be in favor?
In its statements to the media, this Board has made the case that the safe zone poster is sexually inappropriate. Surely our Board knows that the words "gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender" are not dirty or offensive words. In fact, the state of Tennessee and our own county have both adopted numerous textbooks for various classes in which these very same words are used. Several of these course textbooks have supported incredible success rates on AP and end of course exams.
With all of this in mind, I respectfully place the ball back in your court. It is my sincere professional hope that you honor students' rights of free speech and allow my students to repost the GLSEN sign. In doing so, you will show good faith in the law, and honor all rights of students in Rutherford County. Thank you for your time.
Following Allen, Dr. Jeff Clark spoke. He is a professor of business at MTSU and pastor of Cumberland Presbyterian Church. He also has a student at the school. His portion starts at 9:38. He called on the memory of some students who committed
suicide in middle Tennessee due to anti-GLBT bullying. The highlight of his statement to me was:
May I say to you with the deepest sincerity and as a person of faith, removing the poster and leaving my younger sisters and my younger brothers vulnerable to mistreatment deeply, deeply violates my own religious beliefs and moral convictions.
Dr. Carol Clark was next. She is a professor at MTSU. She used to be the leader of the PTO, and currently has a son at the school. Her segment starts at 13:13.
Andrew Heim spoke about the violation of first amendment rights to his fellow students quoting JFK, and also spoke in support of his teacher. His segment starts at 15:12. You can't see it on the video, but at one point when he asked for people who were there to support Allen to stand there weren't that many people sitting.
Michelle McGraff followed, a mother of a young child at a local elementary school. She spoke to the parent who filed the complaint. She stressed that kids cannot be recruited to be gay. Then said parents should be more worried about Miley Cyrus on the MTV video awards. Her section started at 18:00. She teared up several times during her statement. I can't excerpt this, because you need to watch her entire statement.
Doug Patrick was the first from the opposition. He wore purple by mistake. He does not appear to have a child at the school, but based on his statement came just because of the sign he saw on the news. He claimed GLSEN has a political and sexual agenda, which would ban them from participating in school. He claims the school is not the place to promote homosexuality. His section starts at 21:39
James Mike Patrick started next. He was speaking for 50 families he said. He attacked GLSEN for promoting the gay lifestyle. Some of the students laughed at him while he spoke, and you can hear it on the recording. He was angry his time ended before his statement was done. His segment starts at 25:00.
Timothy Kelly spoke next, and he is the parent of one of Allen's students. He kind of rambled a bit, but spoke from his heart. He stressed that Allen never spoke of his political beliefs, religious beliefs, or really anything outside of football. His starts at 28:55.
Next up Penny Johnson who was the former president of PTE, Parents for Truth in Education. (I heard PTE and thought PTA. They are far from that and I encourage you to check the link) She was representing the PTE at the meeting. They were supporting the school board. They want the schools free of all "indoctrination" about sexual orientation. She claims GLBT students are getting special privileges. Hers starts at 31.57
Brian Gregory spoke last. He has no kids currently in the school system, and his grandkids are too young for the schools. He talked about political parties and sexual parties. He claims that people who His starts at 35:21
Our children don't need to be involved in some sexual battle, political battle, problems that are going on in the government. They're here for an education. A simple honest true education. And that's what other parents really want to send their kids to school for. If you want to send your kids for a sexual education, send them to a sexual school.
The general board discussion started at 50:40 following some general school business. The first to speak was the director of schools, Don Odom.
Do we at the same time...when we're talking about one poster, some of you are looking at it as a laser focus and we wound up as a board and myself having to look at it as more of a global thing...Do we also put up posters for pro-life, pro-choice? I received my Time magazine at home this week and was surprised when I opened it up and saw an ad by Al Jazeera saying if I wanted another viewpoint on the news, you know. So I think as the board looks at these things that we have to say, you know, some of the kids at Central Magnet School 6th grade are 12 years old. And so we have to look at this in a global sense and many of you are looking at it in a very focused sense. Our desire is for everyone to feel safe.
Following some discussion about bullying, at 1:03:00 the lawyer spoke. I really can't get a good quote out of this, but he claims Allen was advocating his personal position and not the students. He rambled on and on...but nothing he said was as problematic as the items that were said to the media.
In a statement given to the Daily News Journal, Reed said
“Keep in mind, this poster was up before the school year even started during orientation, before students were even in the school. The student organization that he’s suggesting asked him to them up last year does not even exist this year. So who was it who told him to put it up this year? The teacher told the principal that he was the one that put the sign up this year after students had asked him to put it up last year.”
OK. Couple of things about this… First, according to the students I spoke to at the school board meeting, the club is very much still active, as many of the members of that group were at the school board meeting. The group is missing from the school website's
list of clubs, but is still listed in the
club rotation. Also, in this statement he admitted that the students DID ask Allen to put up the sign. So how is this Allen's agenda when it was brought to him by students?
But he continues… (I can’t excerpt as much as I would like due to fair use…so please see the link.)
“…teachers in the classroom are representatives of that school system, and while they may have personal beliefs and personal opinions with respect to whichever kinds of issues, they are supposed to keep them personal and not really advocate one way or another. The classroom is for education; it’s not really there to be a pulpit.”
Allen has repeatedly said, and the students verified this, that he does not share his personal beliefs in the classroom, and encourages all his students to express their own beliefs. This is not and has never been about Allen. This is about his students.
The fight is not over, even if the school board is entrenched deeper than ever. This is not an easy fight, but it is one worth fighting. We need to make this a better place for our youth, no matter where in the country it is.
As a community, I think we can spread the word on the injustice above. Also, if you are so inclined, you can contact the director of schools about this here. You can also contact the remainder of the school board here.
If you would like to send emails of support to the students, please send them to the GSA president, at jasmine@netwerk-solutions.com, or to the local GLSEN chapter at middletn@chapters.glsen.org. You can also donate to the GLSEN chapter here, and visit their website here.