Parents protest forum on sexual tolerance

By NOELLE BARTON

HARWICH -- A student walked down the hall of Harwich High School and heard the word "faggot" shot toward him. Another sat at her desk doing schoolwork, and turned around to notice classmates behind her holding up signs saying "lesbian."

"The kids do need some help," said Anna Green, adviser to the high school's gay-straight alliance group. "There are some harassment issues."

But a handful of parents in town don't think school should be a forum for a tolerance lesson.

In early February, Harwich High School became the latest school on the Cape to confront the issue of safety for gay and lesbian students when three members of the Cape and Islands Gay and Straight Youth Alliance visited a health class to discuss tolerance and diversity.

People for and against the lesson spoke at a school council meeting on Feb. 27, and the topic will come up again at the March 20 school council meeting, after the administration has had time to find out the state guidelines on the program.

"For me, I believe they do have a choice," to be gay or straight, said Roy Colby Jr. "Their lifestyle is condemned by the Bible and they shouldn't be promoting it to students.

"I don't advocate beating people up, I accept all people, that's their choice," he continued. "But I don't think they need to come into the school and push it onto the kids."

Dee Dee Gomes, a born-again Christian whose son was in the health class during the presentation, said her opposition is not only to gay or lesbian issues being discussed in class, but to any sex education in school.

"There is hope for homosexuals, and I believe the answer is in the Bible through Jesus Christ," Gomes said. "Whose morality are they teaching? It's not mine. Abstinence is what I believe in."

Scott Fitzmaurice, executive director of the Cape and Islands Gay and Straight Youth Alliance, leads the lessons and said the program is about tolerance, not sexuality.

"She and I would share the same values in that I believe that her son should never be harassed at Harwich High School for being a Christian, and always should be proud of any way that he is different," Fitzmaurice said.

At the end of the visit, students fill out evaluations, he said.

"One of the kids on a survey in Harwich said 'It was really great that you didn't try to change our opinions.'" Fitzmaurice said. "We're not there to change people's opinions or values. We're there to talk about respect."

Safety in our schools

Tolerance issues are not unique to Harwich schools, Fitzmaurice said. In 1992, the state passed the Massachusetts Students Civil Rights Law, giving every student the right to an education free from harassment and discrimination based on age, race, disability, sexual orientation or religion.

Over the past several years, the state Department of Education has studied youths in Massachusetts who are dealing with gay or lesbian issues, and found they were five times more likely to attempt suicide than other students and five times more likely to miss school because they feel unsafe there.

Of the students in the 1998 survey who identified themselves as gay or lesbian, more than 40 percent said they had attempted suicide in the previous year.

A statewide Safe Schools program was created in 1993 to get schools to set up gay-straight alliances, provide counseling for students and parents, and encourage training like Fitzmaurice's program for faculty and students. In 2000, his group did about 70 trainings across the Cape at schools in Falmouth, Mashpee, Sandwich, Barnstable and Dennis-Yarmouth.

Until concern about the program was raised in Harwich, no opposition had surfaced.

Green said she was glad all viewpoints were voiced at the school council meeting, but hopes that the opposition won't have an impact on changing things.

"It's so backwards, I can't even describe how misconstrued their beliefs are," she said. "It's just very distasteful to have someone come and quote the Bible and their beliefs on the curriculum for God's sake. This is reality."

Tolerance a learned virtue

Harwich High School principal Bob Krol said he is gathering information from the state and federal government on requirements for the public school health curriculum. He pointed out that the class is an elective, and one that students have the option of not attending if they are offended by subject material. One student in the class did that, he said.

School health coordinator Peg Hannigan, who has taught health in Harwich for 28 years, said there was a lack of information among the parents who oppose gay and lesbian issues being discussed in class.

"We can't expect the kids themselves to be tolerant if the parents aren't tolerant," she said. "Tolerance is something that is learned."

In her eighth-grade class, students learned about tolerance when they completed projects on health issues. One girl said she learned not to put different people down because she's seen people do it to her sister, who has Down syndrome.

"I think basically kids want to be nice and kind," Hannigan said. "Inside, there's still a kid, and the kid is good. If you can inform a kid of what they're going to see out there, it's better."

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