January 13, 2005

Debate stirs over whether Scotts Valley High promotes a ‘gay agenda’

By NANCY PASTERNACK
Sentinel staff writer

SCOTTS VALLEY — Reverse intolerance. Silent propaganda. This is how a debate over the visibility of homosexuality at Scotts Valley High School has been framed.

Parent Don D’Andrea has been fighting for more than two years against what he calls a "single-focused gay and lesbian agenda" at the school.

"Our religious, moral and family values are being tread upon," D’Andrea says.

D’Andrea spoke out at a school board meeting Monday about what he contends is the school’s forceful promotion of values that run counter to his own.

Posters and signs hang in some classrooms, he says, under the pretense of promoting tolerance. But in reality, he says, they promote an "in your face, blatant approach" to issues that don’t belong in the classroom.

Two lesbian teachers at the school openly announced their homosexuality last year and are raising a child together. D’Andrea says teachers at the school who are openly gay or who openly support those who are gay express views "that are nowhere near balanced."

"A classroom is a captive audience," he says. "I want it to be a sexuality-neutral zone."

But Kyle Wehrman, 17, co-founder of the high school’s "Unity Through Diversity" group, says D’Andrea is promoting "an environment of silence."

Wehrman was at Monday’s meeting, along with several other members of the group, to counter D’Andrea.

Homosexuality, Wehrman says, is "the big elephant in the room that no one wants to talk about. It’s reality," he says, "It’s there, and it’s too important to keep on a back burner."

Wehrman had "come out" and announced his homosexuality by the time he entered Scotts Valley High.

The environment at the school was difficult for him, he says, because students were uncomfortable with his being gay.

"It wasn’t overt," he says. "There are no kids slamming you into lockers or anything. But I was an outsider." Wehrman points to the frequency of teen suicide as reason enough to pay attention.

He founded the diversity group at Scotts Valley High with friends during that first year, then transferred to Santa Cruz High where he is now a senior. He feels more comfortable there, he says.

Sexual orientation there "is a non-issue."

D’Andrea says he has no intention of discouraging free speech. Public bulletin boards and student newspapers are the ideal venue, he believes, to show support for the gay population or any other population at the school.

But, he says, there is a difference between tolerance and promotion, and some of the school’s administrators, teachers and students have crossed the line into the latter. He says other parents support his contention.

D’Andrea’s son, a junior at the school, has been insulted, he says, by students who want him to share their beliefs on the subject, and he has been lobbied by people pushing contact information and resources for gay students.

"He has to simply endure these messages all day long in the classroom," D’Andrea says. "It’s indoctrination and propagandization. ... It’s reverse intolerance."

D’Andrea says his complaints — written and public comment at board meetings — have gone ignored.

School board member Allison Niday rebuts that charge.

After D’Andrea first complained to the board more than two years ago, the school’s principal, who is no longer there, went through each classroom, she says.

"He found that some posters did have more of an agenda than they should have," Nidal says. But he took down all signs with "a potentially questionable nature," she says, "and none of those have been hanging up since then."

"Don’s request not to hand out fliers or papers," she says, "has been followed, too."

D’Andrea says teachers keep putting up and taking down a variety of pro-gay signs and posters.

"They’re like dandelions after a rainstorm," he says.

D’Andrea proposes a schoolwide campaign to promote true diversity. His idea, which he says he has proposed repeatedly, would have students involved in a poster design competition. The product of that project, he says, could be posted anywhere.

"This is not about homophobia or racism or sexism or anything like that," he says. "It’s about respecting everyone."

Wehrman says he would like nothing better than to sit down with D’Andrea and discuss these issues.

"People are afraid of what they don’t know," he says. "Unless they find out that we (homosexuals) are people just like them, it’s always going to be us versus them."

Contact Nancy Pasternack at
npasternack@santacruzsentinel.com