Federal judges in Michigan have ruled that the Ann Arbor School District in Michigan violated a student's free speech rights after school officials informed a student that she could not - get this - publicly criticize the Diversity Week program at her school. In Ann Arbor, actual diversity of opinion is apparently not allowed:
At the 2,700-student Ann Arbor Pioneer High School, students held a Diversity Week in March 2002 that included discussions on race, religion and sexual orientation.
One panel organized by the Gay/Straight Alliance included six religious leaders and was titled "Religion and Homosexuality." The panel was arranged with the belief the leaders supported the view that religion and homosexuality aren't inconsistent -- and that all were "welcoming and affirming" of gay rights.
Betsy Hansen, a member of Pioneers for Christ, asked that an alternative viewpoint be added to the panel: that in her view, the Bible teaches that homosexuality is a sin. The district refused.
Of course they did. You don't think the school was actually interested in presenting diverse opinions, do you? Of course not.
A faculty adviser, Sunnie Korzdorfer, sent organizers an e-mail saying the school might face legal action if they kept another viewpoint off the panel. "They have a legal right to say that homosexuality is not a valid lifestyle. That is the bottom line," she wrote. "I am treading on shallow ground here, as I do not want to get sued."
Hansen was then offered a chance to make a two-minute speech at an assembly. School officials read a draft of the speech and said she couldn't read a section that criticized Diversity Week.
"I completely and whole-heartedly support racial diversity, but I can't accept religious and sexual ideas or actions that are wrong," she wrote, in the section that was deleted by school officials.
Hansen and her mother filed suit against the district in July 2002. Rosen said the district's decision to "censor" Hansen's speech was discrimination and violated her First Amendment and 14th Amendment equal protection rights.
Ann Arbor Public Schools "discriminated against Betsy Hansen on the basis of both message and religion, denying her the right to deliver her own message while at the same time affording the (Gay/Straight Alliance) the right to deliver its own religious message," Rosen ruled.
But one teacher at the school, Parker Pennington, told the student newspaper that "allowing adults hostile to homosexuality on that panel would be like inviting white supremacists on a race panel."
At a time when schools complain that NCLB regulations force them to cancel all non-academic lessons, it's nice to see that Ann Arbor has an entire week to devote to "diversity." And why did the school call it a "Diversity" panel when they so obviously were not interested in diversity of opinion? If they're going to spend time and money on discussions that demand one viewpoint on homosexuality, at least be honest and declare it a "pro-homosexuality" panel.
And, Ms. Pennington, a truly diverse panel on race would include racists. A panel on which anti-racist folks civilly debated supremacists of any race would be far more educational than a bogus "diverse" panel, because the students would be able to learn exactly what arguments some people put forward for racism, and students would learn how to counter those arguments.
They would also learn that it is not illegal for people to declare beliefs that others might find offensive, such as a religious opposition to homosexuality. Students used to learn from their teachers that the Bill of Rights protects even "undiverse" speech. Now it takes a federal judge to get that point across.
Because of Hansen's suit, the district canceled Diversity Week this year.
I think that's the best decision. If Ann Arbor really wants its students to experience diversity, there's a wealth of good literature out there that will expose them to a wide range of human experience and beliefs. So how about a "Literature Week" instead?
Posted by kswygert at December 10, 2003 04:18 PM