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News and commentary about the anti-gay lobby“Now you must raise your children up in a world where that union of man and box turtle is on the same legal footing as man and wife…”
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobbyApril 23rd, 2007
Who knew that when Megan Chase, a sophomore at Woodlan Junior-Senior High School in northeast Indiana, wrote this Jan. 19 opinion column for the school newspaper, that there would be so much controversy? All she wanted to do was to stand behind a friend who had come out to her:
Would it be so hard to just accept them as human beings who have feelings just like everyone else? Being homosexual doesn’t make a person inhuman, it makes them just a little bit different than the rest of the world. And for living in a society that tells you to always be yourself, it’s a hard price to pay.
Megan Chase didn’t think advocating for the Golden Rule in treating people kindly would be “any big deal.” Neither did her newspaper adviser Amy Sorrell. But these simple words of tolerance have torn an entire community apart. Soon after this column appeared in The Tomahawk, Sorrell was placed on administrative leave and the school district has recommended that she be fired. The school board is expected to vote on her firing on May 1.
At issue is whether Sorrell should have alerted the principal about the upcoming column. She had shown the principal four stories about teen pregnancy, including an editorial advocating teaching safer sex practices over abstinence education because she thought that “was going to cause the stir.” But she didn’t obtain prior clearance for the tolerance article because she didn’t think there would be anything controversial about tolerance.
It’s one thing to believe that gay marriage, adoption rights, and other political arguments to be controversial, but tolerance?
The sad thing about all of this is that right now, a high school sophomore has learned that writing about the Golden Rule can get your teacher fired. And what’s worse is that somewhere in Indiana right now, there is a boy whose just come out to his friend, and as a consequence of his coming out, he has seen his own home town erupt with outrage when someone suggested that they ought to treat him kindly. What kind of message is that to teach our kids?
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Lynn David
April 23rd, 2007
The “full text of Megan Chase’s poignant editorial which sent the school’s administrators into such a hissy fit” may also be read on the Advance Indiana website. I point this out because the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel website to which you have linked also wrote rather article which derided Chase for writing about tolerance (See: ) and there is a good commentary on the situation there.
The whole thing would seem to be ridiculous but I have to keep reminding myself that this is Indiana, where even defacing the image of Jesus is seen as a good Christian thing.
Whaddya gonna do? . :-/
Lynn David
April 23rd, 2007
Bilerico.com has also been following the situation at Woodlan in Fort Wayne in several posted articles:
Fort Wayne area principal retaliates against pro-gay student editorial – February 21, 2007.
The News-Sentinel hit piece on a high school sophomore – March 2, 2007.
Woodlan High School principal further retaliates against school paper – March 20, 2007.
Denise
April 25th, 2007
Thanks, Lynn, for the link to the full piece. That looks like a pretty good piece of 10th grade writing — on par with many undergrads I’ve read papers for. The message of empathy and affirmation for her gay peers tells me Megan Chase has a good heart and is willing to stand up where she sees a need, even if her stand is unpopular. This is the definition of an ally, straight up. Bravo to her!
PomoProphet
April 29th, 2007
Well thats just wrong. I’m suprised the school district can do that…
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