Please stop promoting this story of descrimination of lesbians at the high school in Del City Oklahoma. I just got off the phone with Principal Gina Hill, I have also talked to a local independent investigative reporter -- who is gay -- and this story is not true the story the girls tell cannot be confirmed, and what can be confirmed indicates that the school has not done what they have been accused of.
Ms. Hill is being inundated with phone calls, including death threats. There is no excuse for the latter, but the former action is misplaced under the circumstances.
The Advocate has published a story they did not fully investigate, based on a local TV news story that also didn't get all the facts. When I read the Advocate piece, I flew off the handle too, because I am a peace and justice activist and it sounded awful. But the students at the school, including openly gay ones, have come to the defense of their administration and THEY should be the main ones we listen to.
Here is what you need to know.
Hunter Cares "Okay, I like a lot of what you say Serena, but a number of us looked into this last week. There's a lot more to this story than what some of the gay sites are putting out. Many LGBT students there have stepped forward in defense of the scho...ol and principal involved. The two girls had a long history of troublemaking and bullying. And lying. They may be using the gay card here. Their stories don't add up and last Friday I watched both the girls posing as different people in the News 9 comment section of the story about this. They finally admitted to who they were. We can't jump every time someone cries wolf. We have to make sure the accusations are valid before going into action. I'm not one to shy away from a good fight, but I want to make sure there is a reason to fight to begin with. I don't know what really happened between these parties and such. I do know that the one girl moved out of her district to move in with her girlfriend. That was the basis in the school telling her if she'd move back with her mother she could attend. The only thing it had to do with her living arrangement was that she was no longer in the district. Also, the thing about attending the day classes in the past. She was allowed to switch to nights, but when she decided she wanted to go back to the day classes, the school said no. Not because she was gay, but because they can't disrupt her education and those of other students by having her switch back and forth on every whim. As I said, I don't know what happened between the parties, but I do know there is a very valid defense for the school at this point and people should not just accept that these girls were targeted for being gay."
I am being sent a full statement about this by the district and will publish is when I receive it.
Ms. Hill was very open and I believe her when she says she and her school have no anti-gay policies. I also encouraged her to do what she could to get sexual orientation added to the district's anti-discrimination policy and she was open to that idea -- obviously she has to work through the process in a conservative state.
But she doesn't deserve to be deluged over a false or at best misrepresented story. She should be able to focus her attention on her students and not a mob of angry folks who think they are helping but aren't.
Update 1:
Here is the TV news story. Please read the comments from current students who are trying to correct the record. Like all local TV news, the station sensationalized the story and then didn't do nearly as much coverage for the response from the school, which wasn't nearly as "news worthy" as lesbians! high school! conflict!