Iowa School Board Overturns Committee Recommendation, Bans Book (GLBT)The North Scott Press
by Bill Tubbs
The United Methodist Church defrocked the Rev. Irene Elizabeth Stroud on a 7-6 vote for being honest about her sexual orientation....The church's decision appears to be, at best, an effort to achieve unity by sacrificing reality and truth.
[That] very week, the networks, who flooded the airwaves all fall with half-truths disguised as political ads, rejected as "too controversial" a 30-second commercial of the United Church of Christ which showed a bouncer standing guard outside a church and choosing whom to allow into services. Among those rejected are people of color and a same-sex couple.
Just when you think all the issues are national, the school board of the Pleasant Valley [Iowa] School District sent shudders through academia with a 4-3 vote to overturn a committee's recommendation that it is OK to continue using the book, "The Misfits" by James Howe, in an elementary classroom. Parents protested when they learned that Linda Goetz, a sixth-grade teacher at Bridgeview Elementary in LeClaire, was reading the book aloud in an effort to curb name-calling. Their objection? One of the characters is gay.
(click here to read the entire story)
Iowa Department of Education Hosts Conference on Bullying and Harassment
"Bullying in Our Schools: Power and Empowerment"
The GLBT Youth in Iowa Schools Task Force is one of several sponsors of this conference which will take place on Thursday, January 27, 2005, at the Scheman Conference Center in Ames.
This conference is designed to help school teams (including youth and community) create plans to prevent bullying and harassment against all students, including those that are gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT).
Sessions will help team members learn what works, how to effectively intervene when bullying happens, and how to recognize the many forms that bullying can take. A special strand is being offered for middle school and high school youth team members, in addition to a strand to address bullying/harassment against diverse populations (GLBT students, students of color, students with disabilities, religious minorities).
Click here for more information and to register your team
Brad Clark
Project Director,
GLBT Youth in Iowa Schools Task Force
PO Box 1797
Des Moines, IA 50306-1797
Contact Brad here:
Send an e-mail
Click here for more contact info:
www.iowasafeschools.org
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