ARTICLES
March 2002 ARTICLES
Contents © 2002
by Jim Holman.
All rights reserved.
Downright Pornographic
Former L.A. Public School Teacher Fights Pro-Homosexual Curricula
By Maggie Garcia
Veteran Los Angeles Unified School District teacher Rob Downs believes that the current push towards embracing the homosexual agenda in the Los Angeles Unified School district is only a precursor of what is in store for schoolchildren in California in the near future. Downs, who in a 1998 lawsuit alleged that the Los Angeles Unified School District was promoting homosexuality, said that homosexual activists are now pushing to implement state-wide curricula and regulations that not only promote the homosexual lifestyle but will punish any child who opposes that agenda. Downs says that parents only have to look at the programs implemented by the Los Angeles Unified School District over the years to see how radical homosexual activists have a stranglehold on the country's second largest school district.
Downs said that during the mid-eighties, several homosexual activists began introducing homosexual themes into selected schools. In 1991, former Los Angeles Unified School District school board member Jeff Horton was instrumental in designating the month of June as "Gay Pride Month" in the school district. During Gay Pride month, schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District hold special events honoring the homosexual lifestyle. Horton served on the school board from 1990 to 1998.
Downs' contention that the school district is favorable to homosexuals is supported by various homosexual-oriented websites. At www.youth.org, the school district is praised for its various homosexual programs. "In Los Angeles," says the website, "the following programs are in effect: a G/L (Gay/Lesbian) Education Commission has been established by the school board. Contact information is below. There is a high school, the Eagle School, for G/L (Gay/Lesbian) students. The G/L (Gay/Lesbian) Ed. Commission organized a successful LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Tran gendered) high school prom in 1994 (and in 1995 a similar prom was successfully held in Hayward, in Alameda County). LAUSD observes 'National Coming Out Day' and has an officially approved homophobia-prevention curriculum (developed by GLAAD/LA, Gay and Lesbian "Alliance against Defamation"). GLAAD/LA is a nation-wide homosexual activist group that exists to promote homosexuals in the media and in film. GLAAD's annual Media Awards attracts scores of Hollywood celebrities as well as major corporate sponsors."
Another homosexual advocacy program in the Los Angeles Unified School District is "Project 10." According to their website, Project 10 is the creation of Virginia Uribe who worked at Fairfax High School in Los Angeles. In 1984, Uribe started Project 10 as a suicide prevention program aimed at homosexual youth who felt confused. Downs points out that "[Uribe] calls it a gay counseling program, but it's an advocacy program. they have Project 10 clubs in some of the schools in the district."
Downs points to the appointment of Cathy Gill in 200 as co-chair of the California department of education's AB 537 task force as proof that the state's department of education wants to bring the homosexual agenda to all schoolchildren in the state of California. The bill, AB 537, introduced in 1999 by Assemblywoman Shelia Kuehl, encouraged tolerance towards homosexual. The task force was created with the idea of creating recommendations on how school districts should implement AB 537. Before she co-chaired the task force, Gill served on the Los Angeles Unified School District's gay and lesbian commission. During her tenure at the school district, Gill's program routinely brought homosexual materials to schoolchildren under the guise of "diversity." Critics charge that some of the materials are downright pornographic in nature.
Concerned that schoolchildren were only given the pro-homosexual viewpoint in the schools, Downs, in 1997 when he was a teacher, tried to put up an exhibit board outside of his classroom during Gay Pride Month. Initially, the principal at his school agreed to let Downs put up the bulletin board which cited passages from the Bible opposing the homosexual life. After the principal received complaints that Downs' bulletin board was making people at the school uncomfortable, she demanded that Downs take it down. Some of the complaints said Downs' bulletin board was "disrespectful," "offensive," "upsetting," "objectionable," and "derogatory."
When Downs challenged the principal, he was told that his material was not acceptable in part because of the separation of church and state. Undeterred, Downs sued the school district, citing violations of his first amendment right to free speech. The United States District Court for the Central District in December 1998 ruled against him, saying that the school district had board discretion in determining what was appropriate teaching material. When Downs appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, the appellate court sided with the school district and the lower court.
Downs said that during the course of discovery in his lawsuit, the court ordered Los Angeles Unified School district to hand over the materials it used in its diversity curriculum. Some of the materials used in the curriculum urge children to visit a homosexual pornography store in search of materials," he said. "These homosexual porno stores where students were told to go, were advertising books about gays in the military and their sexual experiences."
Though he lost his court battle, Downs is determined to warn parents and the public about the homosexual agenda in the public schools. "I view it as contributing to the delinquency of minors," he told the me. "It directs and instructs children in homosexual behavior. The material speaks directly to students on how to engage in various homosexual acts." Beyond this, he said, there is an affirmation of sex between minors and adults." During the discovery phase of his lawsuit, Downs obtained Los Angeles Unified School District materials, in which, said Downs, children "are told that many cultures today allow sex between minors and adults. One book refers to a culture where fathers give their sons to other fathers. It's like they trade the sons back and forth," he noted. Downs said that one of the teaching materials said "that the Greeks believed that sex between the teachers and students was allowed."
According to Downs, much of the material used in the schools holds that the affirmation of pedophilia parallels the affirmation of homosexuality. This type of material, he said, was found in the lower grades. "I think that this happens when you give the child instruction that it is okay for them to have sex with adults," said Downs "At King Middle school, in Los Angeles, they had a sheet of paper showing ads from several different homosexual bars." Downs said that he also obtained material about the homosexual film festival, "Out Fest," held annually in Los Angeles. "Some of the pictures [in the brochure] had full frontal nudity," said Downs. "Some of the pictures showed people on top of each other. Some had pictures of intergenerational sex." He also noted that many of the theaters listed had student rates.
Downs said that he fears for the children of the state of California. "My concern now is that Cathy Gill is now the co-leader of this AB 537 Task Force. There were seven different commissions, which folded into one human relations commission [at the state level]. It appears that many homosexual advocacy groups were brought into the schools to bring their materials. When you look at the members of the AB 537 Task Force, it reads like a who's who of homosexual advocates. They are the ones who will be putting this into our schools under the auspices of the California department of education. The least they could have done is reflect the diverse opinions of the people of California."
Although Downs lost his court challenge, at least two other court challenges are pending before both state and federal courts in California. One case, Parks vs. LAUSD is currently pending before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in Pasadena. Sung Park, an attorney whose child attends school in the district, said that he lost the lower court case on "procedural grounds." He told me that his case involves approximately 20 students ranging from elementary school to high schools. Parks said that the primary difference between his lawsuit and the Downs case is that his lawsuit was initiated by the students. Parks said that he is hopeful that the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals will reverse the lower court's decision and remand the case back to the district court. The Parks matter is scheduled for oral arguments at the Pasadena branch of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in March.
Another case involving the homosexual agenda has been recently filed in state court. Brad Dacus, executive director of the Pacific Justice Institute, said that he filed a lawsuit on behalf of several students and parents in the Novato Unified School District. "This lawsuit attacks the problem in a very practical way," Dacus told me. "If the school district implements AB 537, they have to, as a matter of course, give the parents a way of opting out their children." Dacus said that school districts must give the parents "explicit and not general information" about the programs and courses that will be offered so they can decide whether to remove their child.
According to Dacus, some parents in the Novato Unified School District had not been informed that the school district was scheduled to show the pro-homosexual presentation, "Cootie Shots." Last year "Cootie Shots" was shown at several district schools without parental notification. Dacus said that his lawsuit is the first of many that are in the works in the state. "If any school district is involved in such controversial issues," said Dacus, he will sue on behalf of the parents.
My call to the Los Angeles Unified School district's general counsel, Harold Kwalwasser, was referred to the Century City law firm of Curiale, Dellaverson, Hirschfeld, Kraemer and Sloan. A receptionist answering the call said that attorney Greg Glazer was handling the matter. When I asked Glazer for comment on the litigation against Los Angeles Unified School District, he referred me to Hilda Ramirez. I could not reach Ramirez's office; the phone had been disconnected.
When asked what was his biggest concern with the school district's open promotion of homosexuality, Downs unhesitatingly replied that the material being distributed in the Los Angeles Unified School district will be made mandatory throughout the public schools in the state. "It'll be impossible for you to opt out your kids," he warned.
Hoping to stave off the take-over of the public education system in California, Assemblyman Dennis Mountjoy (R-Arcadia) recently tried to pass legislation that would forbid "the promotion of homosexuality in public education." When the nine-word bill, AB 1326, came up for hearing in the assembly education committee on January 17, it was summarily killed by the Democrats on the education committee. These Democrats include education committee chair, Virginia Strom-Martin (Santa Rosa), Juan Vargas (San Diego), Sarah Reyes (Fresno), Elain Alquist (San Jose), Jackie Goldberg (Los Angeles), and Carol Liu (Pasadena). Fran Pavley (D-Woodland Hills) attended the hearing to testify on behalf of the measure but was not allowed to speak during the hearing.