Article Contributed on: 5/12/2007 4:03:37 PM
I was at the Boulder Valley School Board meeting Tuesday evening, May 8th. The main agenda item was gender identity, and whether to specifically add this to race, sexual orientation, and other categories that are protected from discrimination in schools. I was there to get on my soapbox again about the harm and counterproductivity of Zero Tolerance School Discipline.
The fair size crowd was blown away by the public statements of Boulder High School sophomore
Daphne White and her mother regarding a clearly inappropriate Conference on World Affairs (CWA) panel discussion on Sex and Drugs. The Board was so taken aback that it took the very unusual step of cutting off Mrs. White and not allowing her to finish reading a partial transcript of CWA panelists' comments to students at this mandatory assembly. A surprised but composed Mrs. White said, "If the students at Boulder High can hear this, you can too," but Board President
Helayne Jones insisted she stop. The opinions and encouragements of the panelists to experiment with drugs and sex were shocking, but the language was anatomical, not obscene.
It was quite apparent to me that the Board wanted to shut this down as quickly as possible, and went into full damage control mode, with all Board members making pronouncements about how inappropriate the panel was, there would be an investigation, etc. The Daily Camera, to its credit, put the story on the front page two days later, but made sure the public knew how serious the school district was taking this. Some are bemoaning the possible banishment of CWA from Boulder High as a result of this debacle.
What is really the big story is that the Whites had tried to get a response to their complaints about the panel from the principal and BVSD, and got the usual brick wall. I know this all too well from my experience of complaining about religious discrimination in a BVSD school in the past. Even formal written complaints (as per district policy KL) go nowhere until parents "go public" at televised school board meetings. It's a darn shame it has to be this way, but the new organization BVSDWatch.org aims to change this. Check them out on the web.
The attitude towards the Whites and the wildly left-wing agenda at BHS as represented by the amazing thinking that a panel encouraging sex and drugs would be just fine, is one reason families are fleeing public schools.
But beware, charter schools can have wildly right-wing Christian agendas, as we found out, and others have had sex and financial scandals. The culture wars really are in full swing in schools. There is a big battle going on between the public goods of education (access, equity and a common socialization that benefits society), and the private goods of education (the right to control what your child learns and is exposed to).
My recently released book
Scapegoating for Columbine: Collateral Damage in the War on School Violence, recounts our experience with religious discrimination and zero tolerance discipline in a BVSD school, and also has a full chapter on the school culture wars, and the pros and cons of charter schools. Available at the Boulder Bookstore, Barnes and Noble, or online bookstores in print and ebook. ScapegoatingforColumbine.com