The Charleston Gazette: Debate erupts over Kanawha schools diversity policy

A story this morning from Davin White of the Charleston Gazette on the Kanawha County Board of Education’s (KCBOE) press to add “sexual orientation” to its cultural diversity policy raises questions about the objective counsel the KCBOE may be receiving.

White’s piece wonders why the KCBOE is being so hasty in its press this agenda, when hundreds of Kanawha County citizens have lodged their opposition by phone, email, and internet message board.

White’s story, which can be read in its entirety here, begins thusly:

In two meetings, Kanawha County school board members spent very few minutes talking about whether to include sexual orientation as part of the countys cultural diversity policy.

Fast forward a few weeks, and proposed changes generated about 200 comments on the school boards Web site and led to a flood of e-mails for the legal department.

School board members plan to vote on the policy at a meeting July 16.

Jeremiah Dys, president of the Family Policy Council of West Virginia, said the proposed policy is “going to be penalizing teachers for doing nothing other than standing by their beliefs.”

As the story continues, White quotes KCBOE attorney Jim Withrow as he continues to obfuscate about this unconstitutional policy.  After White outlines how a high school senior seems to have been drafted into action as the face of the political agenda of a few teachers, White quotes Withrow as saying:

“Clayton Stover’s comments to the board may have accelerated our plans….but I was already drafting changes,” Withrow said.

Wait, what was that?  Did he just say, “our plans?”

Whose plans, precisely, Mr. Withrow?  Are you suggesting that the KCBOE, yourself and Dr. Duerring (School Superintendent), or you and some other unknown group of persons had already formulated this plan and where merely waiting until the political landscape was ripe to launch it on Kanawha County?

In addition to not knowing an unconstitutional policy when he sees one, it appears that Mr. Withrow has joined the ranks of political activist for the KCBOE.  Can Mr. Withrow be complicit in the promotion of such a political agenda and yet be expected to provide the objective counsel for which he was hired?

This week, The Family Policy Council of West Virginia will send yet another letter to the members of the KCBOE offering to provide – at our expense – experts capable of explaining in detail the precise pitfalls of this policy.  To date, despite our repeated emails, phone calls, and letters to the KCBOE (including Mr. Withrow), we have received absolutely no response.  Nothing.  Not a phone call, email, or letter.

This leads us to conclude that the KCBOE is content to pass a policy that is in the best interests of politicians over and against that of the students they are sworn to protect.

At a minimum, we call upon the members of the KCBOE to table this policy until they conduct a thorough investigation into the potential problems and pitfalls it presents.

No teacher should be penalized or discriminated against – or have their paycheck held hostage – for merely abiding by their religious convictions.  The classroom is not the proper place for politics.  We encourage the KCBOE to spend more time improving reading, writing, and arithmetic rather than promoting behavior that is unhealthy, unwise, and unravels the moral fabric of the family.