Does the Ramona (California) Unified School District think that the United States of America is now a subsidiary of the Islamic Republic of Iran, where:
"In Iran we don't have homosexuals like in your country," Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said at Columbia University last night in response to a question about the recent execution of two gay men there.
"In Iran we do not have this phenomenon," he continued. "I do not know who has told you we have it."
It's starting to look that way, as the district school administration has classified sixth-grade student Natalie Jones' history presentation on slain gay rights hero Harvey Milk as a form of sex education. What this meant was that in order for her fellow classmates to even be allowed to learn about the importance of an elected California politician, their parents would have to sign permission slips.
The day before Natalie was to present the report in April, she was told by Principal Theresa Grace that she would not be allowed to show her project in class the way other students had done.
Superintendent Robert Graeff and Grace cited the board policy dealing with sex-education matters. The policy states that parents will be notified in writing about any teaching on the subjects of sex or "family life, human sexuality, AIDS or sexually transmitted diseases."
Let's just let that sink in. A presentation about an assassinated politician gets lumped in with "family life, human sexuality, AIDS or sexually transmitted diseases." You have to wonder, would a presentation about Revolutionary War hero and first American President George Washington also require a permission slip? After all, it is widely rumored that his death may have been caused by a case of syphilis, and wouldn't that clearly fall under the catagory of "teaching on the subject of... sexually transmitted diseases?" Somehow I doubt Washington would be held to the same "moral" scrutiny as Milk. How about Abe Lincoln? He's been rumored to have been gay, and Hell, didn't the Log Cabin Republicans name themselves after him? Would a presentation on Lincoln require a permission slip. Doubtful as well.
At least this fiasco has gone national, with the ACLU threatening to sue the school district for their violation of Jones' First Amendment rights:
In today’s letter, the ACLU is demanding that the school:
* Apologize in writing to Natalie Jones and send a letter about that apology to all the parents who were sent the principal’s letter about the presentation
* Give Natalie Jones an opportunity to give her presentation to all the other members of her independent research project class
* Clarify in writing that the parental notification and permission portion of the "Family Life/Sex Education" policy only applies to the curricula identified as "course content" for "Family Life/Sex Education instruction"
The ACLU is giving the district five days to respond or it may file a lawsuit on Bonnie and Natalie Jones’s behalf.
I'm thinking this is going to be a pretty simple handling of the issue by the school district. They will meet the ACLU's demands. And let's hope as many people hear about the utter insanity of policies such as this school district's, which lower the idea and discussion of gay people even existing to the level of genital herpes.
We are not Iran.