April, 2000
After receiving 17 phone calls in opposition, Haines school superintendent Ron Erickson this week canceled a discussion of homophobia scheduled as part of an upcoming program on respect at Haines High School.
Characterizing the calls as a “substantial groundswell of opposition,” Erickson said he scratched the discussion because he feared it would generate a controversy that would overshadow the rest of the program.
Discussions of school violence, bullying and anti-Semitism also were scheduled for the April 10 high school program titled “Reaching for Respect.” The program was a community response to a school clamor triggered by a defamatory list of female students deriding them with terms including “lesbo” and “Jew.”
“My goal is that the focus stays where it needs to stay on this whole issue of harassment and the issues that lead to harassment other than this one,” Erickson said in an interview this week.
“I decided that it was not an appropriate time to deal with this particular issue,” he said, adding that the district had not done “enough preparation time” with the community. “I didn’t want it to become an ideological battle fought on school grounds.”
Erickson said he had heard from assemblyman Terry Pardee and school board president Jerry Lapp previous to canceling the program, but said he didn’t feel pressured by their input.
Pardee said he relayed concerns raised by constituents that the discussion could be construed as being in support of a gay lifestyle. “People I talked to were uncomfortable with the subject, and not familiar with it and told me they’d keep their kids home on the day it was presented.” Pardee called the issue a “red herring” that would lead to community divisiveness.
Erickson rejected the notion that canceling a program on tolerance of gays was tantamount to endorsing intolerance of that group. “We’re not saying that. We’re saying that’s not the sole focus of what we’re trying to do and that that was detracting us from the other issues we were trying to address… The issue is harassment and the focus was to provide a safe environment for kids to learn in.”
Phone callers whom, with the exception of one, Erickson refused to identify expressed concern that the program on gays and lesbians would “expand into a promotional talk for that lifestyle,” Erickson said. “I don’t know if that would happen, but the potential is there for that to happen.”
Assembly of God pastor Eldon Hicks, the one caller Erickson would identify, on Tuesday declined comment, saying he would present his ideas at a Thursday meeting of the local ministerial association.
According to Erickson, some callers said no matter what was presented, the discussion would be counter to their beliefs and at least one threatened a protest. Others apparently objected to discussion of “the biological nature of homosexuality,” an element of the program included at the request of the school district’s counselor.
“This had the potential to be extremely disruptive to the school system and we wouldn’t have accomplished anything we wanted to accomplish. All we would’ve accomplished is creating this additional controversy in the community,” the superintendent said.
Erickson said he “didn’t know” how his decision would be perceived by gay or lesbian students. “Whoever will perceive this will look at it in any manner they wish to perceive it. Will gay students feel this is a slap in the face? It’s not meant to be a slap in the face to anybody.”
Erickson was asked if backing away from teaching respect for gays wasn’t compromising attempts to teach respect for other minorities. “I don’t know we’re going to shy away from teaching tolerance of (gays).
Tolerance of gays and lesbians “will be discussed in some manner” in the schools at a future time “but I’m sure it’s not going to be as a focus group,” Erickson said. He said the district would teach tolerance for all, without addressing specific differences between people.
Parent Heather Lende, program coordinator, said she knew addressing homophobia might be controversial but was surprised Erickson didn’t inquire about the content of the program before canceling it.
No one concerned about the program contacted her before it was canceled, she said. If the sticking point was the biological nature of homosexuality, she’d gladly have stricken that part of the talk, Lende said.
The presenter of the program was to be Mildred Boesser, a Juneau woman married to Archdeacon Mark Boesser, the highest ranking Episcopal Church official in Southeast. Boesser proposed to talk about how her beliefs were shaped by her 49-year-old lesbian daughter, and the discrimination and harassment her daughter had faced.
Boesser wrote to Lende on March 3: “Perhaps the most important thing to say is that there is no way in which I would ever try to force my way of thinking about homosexuality on anyone else. And the very idea of ‘soliciting homosexuals’ is anathema to me, and is not what gay and lesbian people do, regardless of much common belief to the contrary.”
In a follow-up letter March 9, school counselor Carol Flegel asked Boesser if she also could comment on the biological nature of homosexuality, and asked her to bring information about support groups or toll-free phone numbers for more information.
Lende said she considered community standards before scheduling the presentation. “We didn’t invite Ellen Degeneres and her girlfriend here to say how glamorous it all was. We invited a nice, elderly couple who are heterosexual and Christians…. This was pretty benign, I thought.”
Lende said homophobia was chosen as a program topic because teachers and students said that it was a bigger problem than racism in school halls, where derisive terms for homosexuals are bandied about.
She may hold a program through the local Episcopal Church featuring Mildred Boesser that would allow families and friends of gays to come together, Lende said. She said she’s tempted to advertise the program as “Banned in Haines Schools.”
“But the whole purpose is to teach respect. I don’t want to be teaching respect by being disrespectful. But is that the only way to teach respect, to get into people’s faces?”
Lende expressed frustration that she couldn’t confront those who were offended by the idea of the program. “I wouldn’t be surprised if the people who pushed this never come forward. It’s all smoke and mirrors… I think Ron made a huge mistake here.”