Defending the Truth

Students debate column criticizing homosexuals | ajc.com


By DIANE R. STEPP
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 10/02/07

The opinion piece written by student Thomas Benjamin suggests that gays should be denied the privilege of marrying.
Sophomore Kurt Webster said Monday he was surprised the student paper chose to publish such a controversial article. "It should not have been in the paper," he said. "It could hurt people's feelings."
Principal Trudie Donovan said Monday that she had reviewed the article before it was published last Friday, but said she had no authority to censor it. "My job is the safety and security of the school, not censorship," she said.
Cobb County schools spokesman Jay Dillon said principals have no legal standing to say articles of student opinion can't be printed.
Under court rulings and school district policy, students can express their opinions and ideas publicly, privately, orally and in writing. "There may be no interference with that, even if a student's opinion is unpopular," he said.
Exceptions might include obscenities or something that might cause a riot at school, Dillon said. "In such cases, she [Donovan] would be protected in censoring materials. "
The opinion piece appeared in Friday's debut edition of the Inkwell, titled, "Homosexuality: Beyond the Bible." In it, Benjamin slams gays not on religious or Biblical grounds but, he said, based on science and logic.
"I realize biology commits many reproductive errors. Homosexuality can be one of them," he wrote.
Junior Allison Koons said that although she is not offended by the content of the opinion piece, she was "shocked" to see it in the paper.
Kell junior Stephen Davis said the Inkwell editors should have asked gay students about the opinion piece before publishing it.
Teacher Lisa Jordan said, "Some of the kids are upset about it." She said that perhaps the paper will print another side of the issue in its next issue.
Dillon said that will likely be the case.
In December 2004 in Gwinnett County, Berkmar High Principal Kendall Johnson directed that a pair of editorials written for the school's student newspaper dealing with homosexuality be yanked.
The missing editorials had been written about a new club for heterosexual and homosexual teens called the Gay Lesbian and Straight Society. School system officials said Johnson ordered the student editorials removed because he believed they could have caused a stir at Berkmar during exam time.
Gwinnett schools spokeswoman Sloan Roach said the "point-counterpoint" editorials were "inflammatory in nature and could be disruptive. People have very strong feelings about this issue," she said at the time.

http://alt.coxnewsweb.com/ajc/pdf/kell1.pdf
http://alt.coxnewsweb.com/ajc/pdf/kell2.pdf

I promise he didn't consult me on this.

So, "it might hurt somebody's feelings" is the standard by which the truth or merits of an argument or point of view is now being measured?

Pathetic.

Seems that's what they are teaching these days in public schools. You must go out of your way to not hurt any one's feelings.

It hurts peoples feelings
WOOOO chalk one up on the board for Freedom of Speech!! [/sarcasm]

Wow. That kid is a smarmy little.....who had fun with the thesaurus button. Sigh. When I read the blurb, I thought the school did right. Reading that tract, though, changed my mind. There were serious logical leaps made and the arbiter should have had the student flesh those out.
Another problem is the condescension DRIPPING from every word. "Don't hate the homosexuals. Just pat them on the head and then PITY them." Dehumanize them.

"Science implies that homosexual relationship are not meant to be" 'Science' doesn't imply anything. Science is a method, not a speakerbox that just says True Things. Appeal to authority. Slap. Besides that, every homoexual male CAN reproduce. They just have to have sex with a woman.

As for the nurture argument, it consists of "People raised badly do bad things" Then -immediately- to "we shouldn't shun homosexuals". Someone paid attention when Bush was saying "Iraq" everytime he said "9/11". So it's suddenly implied that homosexuals are that way because they were raised badly. Without ever, you know. showing that.

But at most, it was a good educational opportunity missed. (Although it's a funny joke to say that schools don't censor school papers).

I hope a student writes back a response.

It was a poorly written piece. But what do you expect? What response would there be though. There IS no reason/purpose/cause for homosexuality. I'd like to see a bit more than "science doesn't know what it's saying" crap. While a homosexual "can" reproduce, they can't do it with the person his reproductive instinct is telling him to do reproductive acts with. Homosexuality in fish would be a bunch of male fish squirting sperm at each other. Or female fish just dropping a big ole pile of eggs for no reason. Stupid if you think about it like that. How do justify homosexuality without making up some irrational BS like "scientists don't know what they are talking about"?