{ title: 'The Altamont enterprise. (Altamont, N.Y.) 1983-2006, April 11, 1996, Page 8, Image 8', download_links: [ { link: 'http://www.loc.gov/rss/ndnp/ndnp.xml', label: 'application/rss+xml', meta: 'News about NYS Historic Newspapers - RSS Feed', }, { link: '/lccn/sn86011850/1996-04-11/ed-1/seq-8/png/', label: 'image/png', meta: '', }, { link: '/lccn/sn86011850/1996-04-11/ed-1/seq-8.pdf', label: 'application/pdf', meta: '', }, { link: '/lccn/sn86011850/1996-04-11/ed-1/seq-8/ocr.xml', label: 'application/xml', meta: '', }, { link: '/lccn/sn86011850/1996-04-11/ed-1/seq-8/ocr.txt', label: 'text/plain', meta: '', }, ] }
Image provided by: Guilderland Public Library
W I ** ls<t* Edward Bfeiwifachf a co hie father emb-tef, didoajy ~.-<?Ifi&ailrai^ two ile Enterprise, ^m$aBy! V ^iKjfpt I £ee&'\inj*|i lot of ways, this MO%iP^iti*# \i'f-'V«B. ''4-Vi©^ J»fe& T |?apent;ai rig&te #ged ! #ie ^'^fa^^^a^oj^^e community the ^miK ways^iH© district immunity closes *.*t~,jam.™...^ ,_„... .. „...,...„„ „„„,, —T'JYpi^fe?! ?mvsan attorney msidering a suit against the board and administration for ^£tftang the asseiiB^? de^ vibB«itog students* and parents' founder of CP, of the school ^ asked the. boa^f||r one .school >ho$%C meniu^ Joseph Breitenbaclj, speak £uj \ '\\' v ^as,^eyberat|i| gainst parental your •**»**«*. iirs. NEW SCOTLAND PAVING We'll make your home look like new! '*$» % k**i* ^sher reLves mildfew, mold, road dust, etc. lost all surfaces >r restoring decks. •* !• + * • NEED, AN AM mmmm DivisiontftoiM tiiiiMai; Int. \Sin&igtB\ 1) Complete WO CHARGE 2) 24 Hour Emergency Service 3) Leaking Oil Tank (Labor & Tank) NO CHARGE , school i£itfjN8$ besetSy a bunch p? .$reiy' oJdJ;bijBots,..witb an agenda of hate....It's interest- ing something like* tiiis would come up the night you were sup- posed to talk of titie school hud- get/ Related'Wmesm page^andlQ Csaposs said \the same old crowd\; didn't haye enough to -take issue with in. this year's budget proposal, which predicts a 2.8-percent tax rats hike for Guilderland residents. Csaposs conducted by telling the board j \Don't be taken in by them, don't give in to them.\ Dejavu Several of the statements made by critics, of the assembly were similar to those,heard a year ago, as were some of the reactions of board .members. Last March, Joseph Smith, who was .'then a senior at Guilderland High School, ob- jected to the board about an afterTSchool dub to support gay, lesbian and bisexual students. Tuesday, Smith used; some of the same ; words he had a year ago when he said the assembly program \clearly endorses this perversionary lifestyle\ and said the district was endorsing \perverse and intolerable acts.\ He called for \appropriate dis- ciplinary action\ for the faculty responsible for the \disgusting spectacle.\ A year ago, board member Laura Letson said, in response to Smith, \I will fight to the death to preserve the rights of students in this community re- gardless of their sexual orientation.\ She reiterated those words Tuesday night, saying, \I will fight to my death bed to preserve the rights of students regardless of their sexual orientation.\ The Alliance for Lesbian r Gay and Bisexual Students was formed last fall at the high school, initiated by students who wanted to raise awareness about different sexual orienta- tions. The Alliance invited Karen Harbeck to speak to faculty on the issue in March of 1995. After a half-dozen students addressed their .teachers by reading carefully prepared statements- on the abuse suffered by the homosexuals among them, the faculty applauded loud and long and Harbeck concluded, \Pretty powerful evidence that homophobia is alive and well at Guilderland...Even stronger evidence is that no one read their own story.\ Harbeck, a lesbian and a col- lege teacher, then shared some of the personal trauma she had suffered in revealing her sex- ual orientation and also re- ported that homosexual teens suffer a high rate of suicide, of substance abuse, of dropping out of school, of teen homelessness, of HTV infection, and of child abuse. 'Harbeck said.at that session, \Schools need to be able to meet the needs of the invisible mi- norities as well as the visible ones. There should be education hi; all classes that we don't dis- criminate.*' Harbeck, who holds a doctor- ate degree in education as well as a law degree, has written a book, Coming Out of the Class- room Closet: Gay and Lesbian tStudBgm, TeaeHers and Curric- ula, and she directs the Na- tional Institute for Gay, Les- der Concerns in Education. coyei&d jKp$«i^B J$$ : p*. d> tail and • |5ro*y j idt§,,^||^f|,ye coverage on, t$e Alliance, in- ciuding; ,i^t,emews witfr ? stu- dent mefe* • wfco £ankly .^Simi'A^; Sterns rtfty facedjatsctopi because of their sexual orientations. In, -planning this, year's asse^jy* j^e s ^ance invited Harbeck to speak to the stu- dent, She was joined by jDaniel p'Mei^vfc 1988 Guilderland High Sc^o^Lgraduate who suf- fered, ab^ja^cfjjps. homosexual- ity while he was at the school. Wo^SK;The $nterprise asked Joseph Preitenbach how this year's presentation was differ- ent than Harbeck's presenta- tion last yearand why it created such a stir this time, he said, \La^t year 9i it, was a \volunteer program, for staff; it wasn't tak- ing kids who are captive.\ ^y/qaces The nine students who spoke to the board Tuesday all spoke in favor of the assembly pro- gram. The young, women pointed out that the assembly was optional, and not that, different from others the school had presented on issues of diversity, such as racism. Senior Leyla Kiosse said she knew homosexuals who had to leave the school because they were harassed so much, and that the program taught toler- ance. She told the board, \Homosexuality is not about morality...It is not a chosen lifestyle...Homosexuality is something you are born with.\ Another senior, Andrea Wade, told the board it was a misperception to view the assembly AS \a recruitment of homosexuals.\ , She said, \It was a woman and a man who came to discuss problems of hate...[in] an at- tempt to change intolerant and homophobic attitudes in our school...The majority of our school is afraid of anyone who is different.\ Junior Karen Delehanty pointed out, \It's not school pol- icy to tell parents about assemblies.\ And, she said that Harbeck in her home state of Massachusetts had the backing of many right- wing Republicans who \support her because they hold the belief all students have a right to education. Senior Sara Glennon, identi- fying herself both as a hetero- sexual and an Alliance mem- ber, said, \The Alliance is not a homosexual club....It's a sup- port group for people who are homosexual or bisexual...It's like a safe haven for people in our school having problems.\ She said of high school stu- dents, \We are heading to- wards college and the so-called real world...We don't have to agree; we just have to be aware of other's feelings.\ Casandra Pratt, a junior, told the board that she had 1 been called a dyke in the halls of her school that morning. \School's like a second home...it's pretty much my life,\ she said, and went on to question others' statements that \homosexuality has no place in school.\ \We can all agree to dis- agree,\ said Pratt, who stated that she could accept the idea that some others found homo- sexuality immoral but she can't accept words like fag and dyke. She said of the assembly, \We hear how words can cut a person — whatfs wrong with that?\ f Junior Hhnlly HtfloKtajr Said, Hf patents taughtiife|§ 'athoii&e, we w^IdWtvhM'epS]., thets at school.\ .She ^l(#f c^otatuih that de- fined tbieriiieo as allowing * i \to be happy in their own way? hot our own way.\ Hollander related an inci- deiilb dispribed ih tne assembly Where students chanting \Die! 'Die!\ had encircled a homosex- ual student who had a noose about his heck, with tiie other end of ^heropi attached to a car. She si*id the assembly would hel$ prevent hatred at Guilder- landJettingto tiiat point. Jnhior Ka?en Eberlein said the fact that so many in the community were upset by the asseihbly proved the point there's a lack of respect for ho- mosexuality. \What are you guys so afraid of?...\ she asked. \Raising standards should not just deal with math and science,\ she told the school board. Senior Leslie Khachadourian told the board that \homosexuality is not a bad word or a bad thing\ and that what was at one time \closeted by society\ is now \an issue confronting everyone.\ Khachadourian said, \The role of any school is to prepare students for the future,\ and she said of Guilderland's^students, \Don't underestimate lis.\ Parents'voices Parents who spoke to the school board Tuesday were di- vided in their views about the assembly. Steven Kidder, the first speaker at Tuesday's meeting, said he was \totally shocked\ by Monday's program. \I could not believe what I heard,\ he said of references to sex acts and \gay sex.\ He also questioned the appropriateness of the humorous tone Harbeck used at times. Kidder said, \Parents should have been informed way ahead.\ Joanne Clough, who identi- fied herself as a mother of nine, said she believed parents had not been notified about the assembly because the school had a \hidden agenda.\ \When KKK was written on the walls in Guilderland schools, why didn't you have David Duke come?\ she asked. \It's the same thing.\ Harold Smith, Joseph's fa- ther, said, \There was no need for the assembly at school.:.Who wants to be toler- ated?...That's abuse.\ He also said, \If I were a young person, I'd be suspect of what any adult said.\ Julia Walter said she sup- ported the stands the school board has taken in recent years promoting tolerance as it re- lates to sexism, anti-Semitism, racism, and homophobia. Identifying herself as \the child of a Holocaust survivor,\ Walter said, \Prejudice is fear of the unknown. It is giving into the darkness...Do not lis- ten to igh^^ice ahdlbate.\ x Duncan Tulninga said that gay rights, had \to be supported and defended\ and that tfce pro- gram at the high school was about \understanding and awareness\ rather than \promoting\ in the same way that drug awareness programs did not promote drug use. He said gay-bashing existed at Guilderland and '%• wa# \the only remaining civil rights is- sue where it is publicly accept- able to show your bigotry.\ \It isn't about prejudice,\ said Mary Bull, noting, Tnese poor kids think We're beating them up. Bull askfed|hfe board, \Whin did. it^fc&pjin. ...we- allow tne school to strip the parents ojf . u^, ^gMIT \grig • gift}' - «i»m , here to sW it- You're g^vin K If J-vVii' •sv^mmm $$$0f*« - ' ^^rt^M *
