But then again, what else is new. Even when the group is on the right side, it often espouses thoroughly wrong-headed principles to get there.

The case itself seems pretty straight-forward (sorry about the term) to me.

When a high school senior told her principal that students were taunting her for being a lesbian, he told her homosexuality is wrong, outed her to her parents and ordered her to stay away from children.

He suspended some of her friends who expressed their outrage by wearing gay pride T-shirts and buttons at Ponce de Leon High School, according to court records. And he asked dozens of students whether they were gay or associated with gay students.

The American Civil Liberties Union successfully sued the district on behalf of a girl who protested against Principal David Davis, and a federal judge reprimanded Davis for conducting a "witch hunt" against gays. Davis was demoted, and school employees must now go through sensitivity training.

Let's be real honest here -- the principal was wrong in how he handled the situation. While I don't have a problem with his having the position he does on homosexuality (or even with expressing it), I do have a problem with the directive to "stay away from children. And while I don't have a problem with his telling the girl's parents (she was clearly "out" in the school setting, and it would not be unreasonable for a faculty member to discuss such public information with her parents), I do have a problem with his efforts to suppress the First Amendment rights of the students who supported her. And while I oppose "sensitivity training" as nothing less than indoctrination, I would thoroughly support a workshop on how to deal with bullying, harassment and student rights.

But I'm particularly bothered by this statement by a representative of the ACLU.

"I think a shirt that says 'I support gays' is very different from a shirt that says 'Gays are going to hell,'" said Benjamin Stevenson, an ACLU attorney. "One can be very disruptive for a child's self-esteem; the other supports other people and their ideas."

And that is where I have a problem -- the notion that schools should be censoring one side of the debate on a controversial social issue. I've seen it all too often -- support for homosexuality or abortion is OK, but support for traditional morality is banned as "hateful and intolerant". Apparently all it takes for the ACLU standard to be invoked is one student on the right (make that "left") side to be troubled by the message for it to be banned -- but if a conservative or Christian student were to object to the right (make that "left") views supported by the ACLU and d teh kid would be deemed a hate-monger and referred to a sensitivity class a brainwashing program.

For the ACLU to support such a message ban while also supporting the rights of the KKK creates the warped situation where the most extreme views are protected by the Constitution, but mainstream views are not. And for us to attempt to raise students to be responsible citizens fully aware of and prepared to exercise their rights by showing them that government actors are free to censor "unacceptable" speech at every turn is utterly absurd.

Posted by: Greg at 11:48 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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