Date: Thu, 11 Apr 1996 06:51:33 -0700 (PDT) From: jessea@uclink4.berkeley.edu (Jessea NR Greenman) Subject: *RI schools bill to die in Judiciary; inquiry re poster ban in Aurora KS; update on Penny Culliton case in NH PROVIDENCE--The Senate Judiciary Committee on April 4 narrowly approved a bill barring discrimination against LGBs in public schools, but the Committee Chairman said he likely will seek to have the bill pulled because of a "technical problem." The committee's "reconsideration" of the bill is a method of stalling it rather than sending it to the floor for what is projected would be a divisive floor fight. DiSandro said several senators who missed the committee vote are eager to have their say on the measure. An earlier hearing drew a number of witnesses in their teens and early 20s, who had experienced discrimination while attending public schools. The bill, sponsored by Sen. June N. Gibbs, would have prohibited discrimination based on sexual orientation in all public elementary and secondary schools and public colleges and universities. It would have prevented the exclusion of anyone from a public school because of religion or national origin in addition to race, color, or age. Existing law prohibits public schools from discriminating on the basis of sex. ----------------------- ANYONE KNOW ANY MORE DETAILS ABOUT THIS?...[if so, please write to with details] Aurora, KANSAS --according to the associated press, in feb. or march of this year, posters with a message of tolerance about lesbians and gays were banned from the hallways of Smoky Hill High School. the banning was done by the assistant principal, Michael Murphy, since the principal, Mary Jarvis, was out of town. Murphy's rationale was that, though he supports the "concept of tolerance," but did not think the message was "appropriate" for the school building and feared that some students might react violently. The posters had the name of the student club involved, which is "Homosexuals Heterosexuals Alliance Reaching for Tolerance." Murphy is reported to have indicated that "he would allow" the group to have posters spelling out its name in classrooms of teachers who didn't object, but that the posters could NOT include what he termed "explicit messages" OR the words "homosexual, gay or lesbian." For posting in nonclassroom sectors of the school, Murphy stipulated that posters have to use the group's acronym (HHART) rather than spell out its full name. ------------------ In a decision announced Monday April 8, an independent arbitrator has determined that Mascenic (NH) Regional High School English teacher Penny Culliton should not have been fired over a disagreement with the Mascenic administration about her having assigned books with lesbian and gay characters. However, the arbitrator also ruled that she is not entitled to back pay for this academic year, during which she was on "fired" status and therefore neither being paid nor accruing retirement seniority. "People will read a lot of things into this one way or another," said Culliton, hours after the announcement. "The message is that both sides should accept the decision and move on." The books assigned by Culliton were "Maurice" by E.M. Forster and "The Education of Harriet Hatfield" by May Sarton. Indications are that the school board may still be looking for ways to create further difficulties for Culliton in the future. This case bears continued watching, as in fact the Board is reviewing the decision with an eye to perhaps appealing it. [Board Chair Steve Lizotte suspects there have been conditions placed on Culliton's return. "It is a twenty-five page report," he said. "Obviously, it says more than she is getting her job back."] The two sides disagreed adamantly over the central issues in the case, with the teacher's supporters (including the National Education Association) viewing the problem as one of censorship and retaliation regarding introducing homosexuality into the curriculum and the administration viewing the matter as one of "insubordination." Culliton says that, in retrospect, she made a tactical mistake. "If I had to do this all over again, I would have immediately told the public what was told to me (by the administration) about the books. This way it wouldn't have been me against the world," she said. "It was not (wise) for me to counter the censorship moves by myself." The Mascenic Regional School District can be reached at PO Box 479, Wilton NH 03086-0479, phone= 603-654-2171, fax= 603-654-5818. Board Chair is Steve Lizotte. *+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+ OK TO RE-POST. Jessea Greenman The P.E.R.S.O.N. Project (Public Education Regarding Sexual Orientation Nationally) CHECK THIS OUT FOR TONS OF INFO - - http://www.youth.org/loco/PERSONProject/ Please cc us (for our files) on correspondence you send or receive re our action alerts.