East Allen County Schools Refuses To Repeal Anti-Gay Policy

When officials of the East Allen County School system disciplined Woodlan Junior-Senior journalism teacher Amy Sorrell for allowing an editorial written by 10th-grader Megan Chase promoting tolerance of gays to be published in the student newspaper, school officials insisted they weren't sending a message of intolerance of gays and lesbians, even though one school official labeled the editorial as "inappropriate material" for the students. There is in fact good evidence the school has an anti-gay policy. The Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette's Katie Stockman has unearthed an anti-gay policy the school's board adopted in 1995 six days before Christmas. The Board specifically adopted a policy which denounced "gay and lesbian behavior or the support of such activities". The full text of the policy adopted by the Board reads:

We resolve as the Board of School Trustees of East Allen County Schools to strongly support and value those things which contribute to and improve the stability of families. Likewise, we denounce anything which undermines such family structure and encourage others both inside and outside of our school system to join us in these efforts. This is a denunciation of activities such as drug use, premarital sex, violence or gay and lesbian behavior or the support of such activities.

Despite the undeniable meaning of the policy, school officials refuse to rescind the policy or consider adopting a gay tolerance policy, claiming it was a mere reflection of the Board's thinking at that time. The school's president was adamant that no action would be taken on the matter. “It’s not a policy,” school board President Stephen Terry said. “It predates this board.”“The mind-set and mentality of digging up the past, I believe, is what kills people,” Terry said. Say what? "Kills people." Notwithstanding Terry's disturbing defense of the status quo, Stockman found favorable sentiment for the anti-gay policy on today's Board. Quoting two of the board members, Stockman writes:

Board members Leland Etzler and Rick Allgeier said while it may not be a resolution that would be adopted by the board today, it does follow the beliefs of many people.

“The majority of our people are interested in Christian values and know Christ did not condone sin, but he loved the sinner. That would be the model by which we ought to live,” Etzler said.

“Those activities do undermine the stability of the family, in my opinion. I certainly would not argue against most of the content of that resolution.”

But all people should be treated with respect and fairness, he said. Allgeier agreed.

“I am called as a Christian to love my neighbor as myself,” he said.

But as a Christian, he said, he also can’t deny that some actions are sinful, and sometimes it’s appropriate for a school board to comment on those issues.

“If there’s a lot of breakdown and problems in the schools, and much of those problems you could relate to the breakdown in the family, then anything that breaks the family structure down I think is not conducive to good learning,” Allgeier said.

You may recall that the school's superintendent, Kay Novotny, claimed people were engaging in "character assassination" by insisting she and other school officials weren't tolerant of gays in a news conference following the school's decision to transfer Amy Sorrell to another school and suspend her for five days without pay. It's hard to say there's not merit to those claiming the school system is fundamentally anti-gay after reading this latest from Stockman's reporting.