At its meeting this coming Wednesday, the Monrovia School Board will consider adopting revisions to its Pupil Personnel Services Board Policies, including the following:
- Tobacco use
- Positive school climate (no bullying, etc.)
- Asthma management
- Child abuse prevention and reporting
- Suicide prevention and intervention
- School health services
- Hate motivated behavior
Opinion: The one item here that gives me the heebie jeebies is "Hate motivated behavior." While I sympathize with the motivation behind this item, I think it should be pulled and reworded because it appears that half the school population would be guilty within a week of setting foot on campus. Further, it seems to outlaw students' First Amendment right of free speech.
Specifically, it outlaws "discriminatory behavior or statements that degrade an individual on the basis of his/her actual or perceived race, ethnicity, culture, heritage, gender, sex, sexual orientation, physical/mental attributes, or religious beliefs or practices."
So ...
~ If there is a class that includes students of European descent and an instructor criticizes European immigrants' treatment of Native Americans, has the teacher made a discriminatory statement against those students' race, ethnicity, culture or heritage? Should that instructor be disciplined?
~ If a student tells Christian students that he dislikes the Christian church for its stand on homosexuality, will that student be disciplined for a discriminatory statement against those students' religious beliefs?
~ And if a Christian student tells a homosexual student that homosexuality is wrong, is that student going to be disciplined for a discriminatory statement against someone of a particular sexual orientation?
I could go on, but I really think the object is to encourage a POLITE exchange of ideas, not to prevent ideas from being exchanged.
Source: http://goo.gl/rysUN
- Brad Haugaard
One key difference I see with your "examples" vs the intent -- as someone of European descent I *know* I personally did not mistreat any Native Americans...vs the scenario of a group of boys picking on another based on their belief he is gay - those boys are directly involved with that mistreatment. Further, and as a Christian, with two of your examples involving Christians -- shows your bias that you think Christians are somehow going to be targetted which I haven't seen evidence of in Monrovia and find insulting. MHS has both a Christian/faith-based club and a Gay-Straight Alliance club -- there is no reason both can't co-exist and learn to, if not be accepting, at least be tolerant and civil.
ReplyDelete