Heads roll in gay workshop flap

by Ed Hayward

Reacting to the shocking content of a gay sex workshop led by two Department of Education staffers and a consultant, state education czar David P. Driscoll yesterday fired one worker, accepted the resignation of the other and axed the consultant's job.

"I have taken steps to ensure that this type of situation will not occur again under my watch,'' Driscoll said. "The department is committed to programs that provide information and education to help students minimize the terrible consequences of risky behavior in the ares of substance abuse, violence and sexuality.''

Driscoll's action followed a flurry of publicity and protests surrounding the "prurient'' discussion held at the annual conference of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network at Tufts University on March 25.

The three AIDS/HIV prevention specialists led the Saturday workshop as volunteers. Driscoll said the conference did not receive state funding, though the network holds a state contract to provide educator training to erase bias based on sexuality in the public schools.

But the graphic nature of the 30-student seminar "What They Didn't Tell You About Queer Sex and Sexuality in Health Class,'' veered far from the department's mission to promote AIDS and HIV awareness, Driscoll said.

None of the three workshop hosts could be reached for comment last night.

But people on both sides of the issue slammed Driscoll's decision.

Larry Kessler, executive director of the AIDS Action Committee, said Driscoll's move sent a chilling message to educators focused on AIDS awareness and safe sex education.

"It's the Big Dig mentality,'' said Kessler. "The bigger the hole we can dig, the more heads we can fit in it. That way we don't have to confront the issues of the 21st century. These kids were there to learn. You could debate mistakes made in the presentation. But what they did was not wrong.''

Kessler said AIDS Action honored the two Department of Education workers, Julie Netherland and Margot Ables, for their work with young people on the issues of disease prevention.

Brian Camenker, director of the Parents Rights Coalition, which secretly taped the workshop and distributed copies to the media, said he will keep pushing to have Driscoll fired and cut $1.5 million in funding to the Governor's Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth.

"This is nothing,'' said Camenker. "This is a slap in the face of parents. They have to turn the department competely around. It's an endemic problem and it's been going on for years.''

The Safe and Healthy Schools program run by the network is funded through the education department with money from the commission's budget. The program was mandated by a 1993 gubernatorial order to ensure protection of student civil rights regardless of sexual orientation.

The workshop contents came to light when Camenker and Scott Whiteman, also a member of the coalition, began distributing the casette, including a copy played on radio station WTKK-FM (96.9).

Whiteman said previously he secretly recorded the workshop because his critics doubted the content of previous annual conferences held by the network.

On Thursday, Suffolk Superior Court Judge Allan vanGestel issued a restraining order barring Whiteman and Camenker from distributing the tape or talking about its contents.

Netherland and a 17-year-old student who attended the discussion filed a civil complaint, alleging that Whiteman did not seek permission to make his recording and that students believed the discussion was confidential.

Making an audio tape of a person without consent is a felony offense in Massachusetts, punishable by a fine of up to $10,000, a prison term of no more than five years or a 2 -year jail term.

An attorney for Netherland, who resigned her post, decried Driscoll's move.

"It's a shame that two people were sacrificed for a controversy that was created by the illegal act of taping this workshop,'' said Gary Buseck, executive director of the Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders legal aid agency. "It's sad that good educators have been undone in this way.''

Boston Globe, May 20, 2000
Box 2378, Boston, MA, 02107
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2 lose jobs over workshop on sex
Commisisioner calls session too explicit

By Mac Daniel, Globe Staff

Two state Department of Education employees lost their jobs yesterday at the behest of state Education Commissioner David P. Driscoll, marking the latest fallout from a controversial sex education workshop in which his agency participated.

One presenter at the workshop was fired and a second resigned. In explaining his actions yesterday, Driscoll said the sessions ''went too far'' with explicit discussions about sexual techniques.

Driscoll said he had canceled the contract of a third presenter at the March workshop, which included frank talk about how to use a condom and how to perform oral sex.

''I feel the actions were beyond reasonable, beyond what our program [of HIV/AIDS education] calls for,'' Driscoll said. ''It was lack of good judgment and perspective.''

Controversy erupted around the workshop after members of the conservative Parents Rights Coalition secretly taped a session of the conference ''Teach Out 2000,'' sponsored by the Boston chapter of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network and held at Tufts University for those ranging in age from 14 to 21.

During the conference, teenagers were able to pose questions about sex to the two presenters and a Department of Public Health employee working under contract with the Education Department. Driscoll ended the contract with the Department of Public Health yesterday.

The two employees losing jobs yesterday were part of the department's HIV/AIDS awareness program.

After the workshop, the parents coalition had planned to release portions of the tapes in an attempt to publicize what they said was a misuse of taxpayers' money. The coalition also announced that it intended to sell copies of the tapes to parents.

But on Wednesday, the legal defense organization Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders obtained an emergency restraining order from a Suffolk Superior Court judge, barring the distribution and public discussion of the tapes on the grounds they violated state wiretap laws.

Officials of the Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders said the taping was done illegally and privacy issues are at stake because students' voices are identifiable on the tape.

Yesterday, coalition leader Brian Camenker declined to comment on the specifics of the case. However, he said Education Department officials had handled this issue ­ and the entire subject of sex education ­ poorly, calling it ''a slap in the face to parents.''

Camenker also demanded that Driscoll resign and the department return some $1.5 million in state funds for training school staff on gay issues.

''Firing a few people will not help, the entire department needs to change,'' Camenker said. ''This is only the tip of the iceberg. We have parents with horror stories who only found out about this afterwards.''

Bennett Klein, the AIDS Law Project director for GLAD, said yesterday that he was dismayed by Driscoll's actions.

''It's a shame that Commissioner Driscoll has scapegoated two fine individuals who were simply answering questions from students at a sex education workshop,'' said Klein. ''These were questions posed by the students themselves. I think it's also unfortunate that the commissioner has really caved in to a group of people who infiltrated a workshop intended for young people and illegally taped a private discussion which young people were having. This group clearly has a broader agenda than just this workshop.

''The PRC doesn't want young people to get sex education or HIV prevention at all,'' he added. ''They don't want schools creating safety for gay and lesbian youth and they have resorted to illegal tactics simply to create a controversy that the commissioner caved into.''

Attempts to reach the three presenters were unsuccessful last night.

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