News
2005-11-01
Pastors protest
Iowa school's sponsorship of antibullying forum
A group of
southeast Iowa pastors plan to launch an organized protest
of a school-sponsored forum planned for
A group of
southeast Iowa pastors plan to launch an organized protest
of a school-sponsored forum planned for Tuesday
focusing on bullying and its effect on gay, lesbian,
bisexual, and transgender students.
The Burlington School Board will help host and
participate in the GLBT Youth in Iowa Schools Task
Force meeting scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday at James
Madison Middle School.
The pastors said they are opposed to focusing
the attention on school safety for that specific group
of students. "We're just strongly against it," said
the Reverend Steve Perkins of St. John AME Church, who
attended a meeting of pastors Thursday to discuss strategy
for opposing what some among them described as the gay agenda.
Perkins and his fellow ministers do not want to
see GLBT students singled out as a specially protected
class of student. If that happens, the ministers fear
that "proponents of the homosexual lifestyle" will
gain access to the hearts and minds of Burlington youth. "We
do want safety for all kids," Perkins said, "and for
them to have an opportunity to learn on an even
playing field." The pastors intend to fill the school
board room at the administration building for a scheduled
8 p.m. school board work session Monday.
A new harassment, bullying, and hazing policy
adopted by the board in August prohibits acts of
intolerance, harassment, bullying, or hazing based on
race, color, creed, gender, religion, marital status, ethnic
background, national origin, disability, sexual orientation,
physical appearance, or socioeconomic background. The
policy defines harassment, bullying, and hazing and
outlines punishments for students or staff found to
have engaged in any of those behaviors. The policy also
calls on the district to educate students about
cultural diversity and promote tolerance of individual differences.
Board president Frosty Krummel, pastor at First
Presbyterian Church in Burlington, would not elaborate
on his own opinion about the other ministers'
misgivings about the Burlington schools becoming involved in
LGBT issues. He did point out, however, that there are other
Burlington churches listed among the forum's sponsors
and noted the existence of a "wide diversity of
legitimate Christian opinion."
Within his own faith, Krummel said one could
speak with five ministers and get five different
opinions on the subject of homosexuality. Krummel
didn't seem to oppose the forum or the district's
participation in it. "It's an educational forum," he
said. "If you can't have an educational forum within
the educational system, where can you have them?" (AP)
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