More On Guidance Counselors and Backpacks

I hadn't seen this article in Blair High School's Silver Chips online newspaper, from several weeks ago. There is an odd situation involving how school counselors can work with gay students, and I'm not sure where it's headed.

This reporter did a lot of digging, and I'm going to include, I think, the whole thing.

Last June, the Virginia-based Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays (PFOX) submitted a statement to the MCPS Board of Education and Superintendent Jerry Weast claiming that, in May, a parent had received information from a school counselor that promoted a single viewpoint on homosexuality.

In response, MCPS Associate Superintendent Carey Wright called two separate meetings in mid-September for all high school counselors and school psychologists to discuss a new directive prohibiting the distribution of written materials without prior county approval.

Blair's Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) sent a letter to Deputy Superintendent Frieda Lacey on Oct. 4 expressing their concerns that the policy would compromise an important outlet of support for gay students. As of Nov. 6, they had not received a reply. Lacey was unavailable for comment.

Principal Phillip Gainous does not support the policy because, he said, it could restrict counselors' ability to help students who are struggling with their sexual identities. He extended his support to the GSA in their efforts to protest the new regulation. "The counselors, of all people, need to be in a position to offer guidance and advice to students," he said. Group claims bias in counseling materials: MCPS restricts guidance

OK, the story is that a parent went to a school counselor saying that their kid was gay, and asking if there was any literature they could take home. It was a set-up. Some versions have this parent as a CRC member, the Silver Chips version seems to suggest it might have been somebody from PFOX.

Whatever, you do want to know exactly what that "new directive" is really about, and what "county approval" is.

Counselors now require approval from the MCPS central office before they can distribute written materials to students or parents, according to Bonnie Cullison, president of the Montgomery County Education Association. MCPS is currently working to assemble a list of pre-approved sources from which counselors can obtain reliable information, Cullison said.

The meeting for counselors stressed the importance of accurate information regarding "gender-specific issues" and sexuality, according to Blair counselors Dwayne Thomas and Melba Battle, who attended the meeting.

No written statements have been produced regarding the new regulations, which Johnson and Battle believe may be due to MCPS administrators' reluctance to formalize the policy. Christina Webb, executive assistant to Lacey, denied the existence of an official policy addressing the written materials distributed by counselors.

According to Battle, the new directive was issued in response to a complaint from a parent who considered information provided by an MCPS counselor to be promoting one viewpoint of homosexuality over others.

Well, there is one viewpoint, shared by all the major medical and mental health organizations, and that should be what they carry.

Since this is PFOX, and we know that the president of PFOX, Richard Cohen, was expelled for life from the American Counseling Association, we infer that when they say they want more than one viewpoint, they mean they want the illegitimate views promoted by PFOX to be distributed in school counseling offices.

After careful thought and many, many long-winded and contentious meetings of TeachTheFacts.org officers and directors, we have decided that our official point of view will be to oppose the distribution of PFOX's bogus materials at the schools.

Silver Chips continues:

Regina Griggs, executive director of PFOX, said that a parent contacted PFOX after the alleged incident occurred on May 17. Griggs said the information that the parent received included a list of web sites for "pro-gay" organizations and instructions for starting a gay-straight alliance in high school. She said that the counselor did not give any information presenting the viewpoint of "ex-gays" — the belief that people who define themselves as homosexual can later change their sexual orientation. PFOX said the information promoted a biased view of homosexuality.

Griggs would not disclose the name of the school at which the incident occurred.

If you know which school this was, put something in our comments, OK? We hear rumors, but they're not solid enough to post in a blog on the Internet.

And gee, don't you just wonder why they didn't give out any information about "ex-gays?" Do they mean information about ... straight people?

On May 23, PFOX wrote to MCPS Director of Public Information Brian Edwards to request materials on sexual orientation and sexual identity. When they did not receive a response, PFOX wrote another letter on June 5 to MCPS School Counseling Services Supervisor Kent Weaver, the Board of Education and Superintendent Jerry Weast, calling the incident "a clear bias against credible viewpoints about former homosexuals."

Edwards responded to the May 23 letter on June 26, saying that the county had no official materials to distribute regarding sexuality. On Aug. 4, PFOX wrote back informing Edwards that "several parents" had received materials from counselors about homosexuality.

If you're going to hand out stuff about "ex-gays," in order to really avoid bias you'll have to include stuff about ex-straights, too. Because, to tell you the truth, there are way more ex-straights than people who went the other way. Just ask Ted Haggard, the ex-straight preacher. Or James McGreevey, the ex-straight governor of New Jersey. Or Jim West, the ex-straight mayor of Spokane, Washington. Or ... you see what I'm saying.

And how many "ex-gays" can you name?

Silver Chips again:

To ensure that students receive equal information, Griggs said that PFOX plans to distribute fliers to all MCPS students over the course of the school year. A new MCPS policy requires that all fliers produced by non-profit organizations only be distributed through MCPS during one set period per quarter. PFOX's flier, which contains information about the organization and their views on homosexuality, will be distributed during the next quarterly period at Quince Orchard. PFOX's ultimate goal is to distribute fliers regarding sexuality in all MCPS high schools, said Griggs.

Griggs said that PFOX is not satisfied with MCPS's new requirements for counselors. She proposed that specific, approved materials be mandatorily distributed to all students who request information to ensure that students receive all available, credible, pre-approved information. "I don't think we want to have to continually do legal battles to make sure children have all the information," she said.

PFOX sued MCPS in June 2005, to revise MCPS's proposed health curriculum, which PFOX claimed "contained resources that were factually incorrect, biased, opposed certain religious viewpoints, and did not present different scientifically based views on the subject of homosexuality," according to the June 5 letter. Griggs cited the counselor incident as another example of how MCPS has omitted valid viewpoints in its presentation of homosexuality to students.

Now, I've never met Ms. Griggs, but news reports do mention that she has a gay son. Can you imagine being a gay guy, and your mother is telling people every day of her life that you can change? Can she really believe it? If she does, what does she think about her son, who insists on choosing to stay gay?

Some of these things are so sad you almost don't want to joke about them.

But you have to.

Cullison explained that the new regulations aim to ensure objectivity. She said that while verbal conversations between a counselor and student are confidential and cannot be regulated, written information distributed by counselors should be neutral. As a public school system, MCPS has a legal obligation not to promote any one viewpoint over another. Ultimately, MCPS and its counselors all care about the well-being of students, she said. "The school system is really focused on what it has to do and tries to stay out of big social issues and avoid legal activity," she said.

GSA sponsor and social studies teacher Mary Thornton said that she is disappointed by MCPS's response to the PFOX complaints. "We keep backing down from lawsuits that we should stand up to and fight," she said. "We're supposed to stand for the students and their own pursuit of their fullest potential."

Thornton added that PFOX, based in Virginia, should not be involved in MCPS because they are not "stakeholders" in MCPS education.

Well, yes, that's something. These people don't even live here.

This stuff that they're saying, about a school not promoting one viewpoint over the other, is very dangerous. That would mean you can't mention the NAACP without bringing in the Klan -- I mean, c'mon, anybody can see the insanity of this... can't they?

And we're not talking about some difference of opinion here. Medical and psychological experts are in accord about how to treat gay individuals. There's a right answer to the question, and PFOX doesn't have it.

Think about the idea that a school has to express both sides of every issue equally. As someone noted in the comments to this article online, "it's absurd."

Blair counselors agree that the new regulations serve a necessary purpose and that they do not feel restricted by the rule. Resource counselor Marcia Johnson said the meeting was a "reminder" rather than a real policy change. "We already knew that we need to make sure we get approved information, as opposed to information from agencies that are not established," she said.

Thomas said that he understood the meeting as a discussion of how counselors can be better prepared to deal with issues like homosexuality.

Before the meeting, counselors often did not know what kind of information to give students who request literature on sensitive issues, Battle said. She hopes that MCPS compiles the list of approved sources, which would be a helpful resource for all MCPS counselors.

See, this can't work out well for PFOX. Their literature is all religious, for one thing; there's really no other argument for denying your deepest feelings and living your entire life without love. Their beliefs are soundly rejected by all the professional organizations, for another. The idea that there are "two sides" to the issue is a complete fiction they have dreamed up. Nobody thinks you can change who you're attracted to, and most sensible people fail to see the virtue in pretending to be what you aren't.

Think of PFOX as the Flat Earth Society, constantly suing to have "both sides" of the debate included in the schools.

GSA President Avi Edelman is concerned that gay students will not get the guidance they need because of the limitations on counselors and psychologists. "Being gay in high school is such a tough thing," Edelman said. "[The new MCPS regulation is] something that should really concern students. To me, it's saying that a bureaucratic process is more important than the concerns of the students."

Gainous read the GSA's letter and supports the club's efforts to protest the policy, which he worries will eliminate an important source of support for students. "We've got all these young people seeking answers in the street when we could be the ones responding to their individual needs," he said.

Norman Aaronson, an education law professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder, said that MCPS is legally entitled to require information distributed by counselors to be approved by the county. Aaronson cited the Supreme Court case Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier for giving the school system the power to control the information distributed to students. "As long as they can relate it to legitimate concerns, the school system can control information that's disseminated through employees," he said.

People we've talked to inside the school district are reassuring but vague. It is impossible that they'll ever hand out PFOX junk. As far as materials produced by groups that support the gay community, what's wrong with that? Is the American Heart Association's brochure on heart disease biased? Of course the gay advocacy groups know something about being gay, and it's silly to propose that their materials should be restricted.

By the way, it's fun reading the comments on this article at Silver Chips. Like, somebody points out that the school computer system blocks the PFOX web site, which is hilarious. One commenter made this good observations: pfox is Parents and Friends of ExGays and Gays. but what are ex-gays? former gays. could these "ex-gays" be "bisexuals?" i think so. why are only parents/friends in pfox? where are the gays and ex-gays themselves?

The school district would like this problem to go away. But when you have someone as irrepressibly annoying as Regina Griggs popping up through every possible opening -- it's not going away. The guidance counselors have no business even considering PFOX's ridiculous ideas, and I think MCPS must understand that if they start promoting this particular flavor of nuttiness they will have the whole community jumping down their throats. Not just a couple of annoying whiners: all of us. Hopefully they are being careful here.