Gay Teacher 'Outs'
Himself, And Parents Are Upset
By AP from wcco.com
on the Web, October 8, 2006
Minneapolis, Oct. 7 -- Several
parents of students at a downtown Minneapolis school are protesting a
second-grade teacher's decision to tell his class he's gay as part of a
discussion of diversity, without first notifying them.
The parents and about a dozen supporters held a protest Friday at the
Interdisciplinary Downtown School, which serves students from 10 Twin
Cities-area district. They want the school to let their children switch to
a different class, a request that Principal Laura Bloomberg refused.
The incident again raised perennial questions about the inclusion of social
issues in public school curriculum.
But the protest drew an unexpected counter-protest from a 17-year-old student at
the school, who confronted the group and said he didn't see how anyone could
think the second-graders were in any danger. The parents replied that the
young man didn't have children of his own in the classroom.
The controversy stemmed from a Sept. 15 classroom discussion led by Peter Sage,
who was teaching a curriculum about different types of families. Sage said
he read a prescribed book about a two-mom family, and then explained to the 23
students that he too is gay.
Sage said he went on to tell students that some people have different views of
people not like them, describing how he disagreed with his own grandfather's
negative view of black people. The protesting parents are black.
The ensuing classroom discussion prompted a wide range of responses, Sage said,
prompting him to write a letter a few days later to the students' parents
explaining the discussion.
Parent Gena Bounds said she doesn't object to Sage's sexual orientation, but
that she considers the discussion inappropriate for a second-grader. She
said parents had "no right or say-so" in approving the curriculum.
But Sage and Bloomberg said parents overwhelmingly support the school's
diversity curriculum. Bloomberg noted the mission of the seven-year-old
school is to build "a partnership of diversity, community and technology."
She said she denied parent requests for classroom tranfers because students at
the school are placed carefully based on abilities, classroom mix and past
performance. She said parents are free to object to the school board or
withdraw their children from the school.
School districts around Minnesota use several types of curriculum that explain
different types of families, including those with gay parents. Debra
Davis, an expert on gender curriculum topics who conducts training sessions
around the country and who was once a man, said she's not heard of anyone in
Minnesota being upset over the materials.
"I don't think there is an agenda here" to push gay issues, Davis said.
She said such curriculums are reviewed by school boards and oversight groups
that often include parents and community members.
Parents by law do have the right to review curriculum and request their children
be excused from parts of it. FeLicia McCorvey Preyer, one of the
protesters and the mother of seven children at the school, said she met with
Sage in August and, "I mentioned that I did not want my child hearing this
information" about gay issues.
But the feelings were strong on both sides. The young counter-protester,
Walter Kaplan, shouted that the parents and their supporters were "hatemongers,"
and insisted that the school was "not teaching anything wrong."
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