News Release
For Immediate Release: April 20, 2011
Contact: Diane Gramley 1.814.271.9078 or 1.814.437.5355
ACLU Bullies Schools to Permit Students to be Disruptive; but Lambda Legal Gives Another Message!
(Harrisburg) – In January the ACLU began its bullying campaign against schools implying that students had a constitutional right to remain silent on the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network Gay Day of Silence. The ACLU’s Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender & AIDS Project sent warning letters to a school’s “Principal or Educator” on January 28th encouraging them to permit students to remain silent during classroom instructional time. Schools in Pennsylvania were recipients of such a letter, notes the American Family Association of Pennsylvania (AFA of PA), a statewide child advocacy organization.
The AFA of PA also notes the conflict between the ACLU letter and that of the homosexual legal organization Lambda Legal which specifically notes, “For example, schools have some control over students’ speech in the classroom or during other supervised, school-sponsored activities. If a teacher tells a student to answer a question during class, the student generally doesn’t have a constitutional right to refuse to answer.”
“The AFA of PA knows of schools here in Pennsylvania where teachers did permit students to remain silent and not verbally respond to questions during class time. In fact some of those schools even handed out a pad of paper and pens for those kids to use in ‘answering’ questions during class. It is outrageous that the ACLU is now in the business of misinforming schools that students have a constitutional right to remain silent during instructional time. This letter shows their rabid intention to force schools to push the acceptance of homosexuality on their students. Allowing students to remain silent when a teacher asks a question during class time is disruptive, disrespectful and sends the wrong message to the rest of the class,” stated Diane Gramley, President of the AFA of PA.
The ACLU letter “encourages” the school to have “appropriate security measures” in place to punish students who may oppose the Day of Silence disruptions. Of course, such a statement targets conservative students who agree with the majority of Americans that engaging in homosexual behavior is morally wrong. So rather than punish those disrupting class, the ACLU wants those who oppose the disruption to be punished!
The letter gives pointers on how the school can permit students to participate in the Gay Day of Silence, “Typically, on the Day of Silence, rather than speaking, participants hand out “speaking cards” explaining their reasons for remaining silent throughout the day. . . . With the support of teachers, students could lead or take part in a “silent lesson” or complete a written assignment.”
“Parents send their children to school to learn academics not to be forced through social engineering and indoctrination. Pennsylvania taxpayers deserve better than to have a day of homosexual activism as part of the school calendar,” Gramley continued.
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