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Loading ...GSA foe changes mind about quitting
12.05.2008 1:48pm EST
(Irmo, South Carolina) A high school whose principal announced he would resign rather than allow a gay student club to meet on campus has changed his mind, and now says he wants to keep his job.
Irmo High School principal Eddie Walker in May said he would quit at the end of the 2008-09 school year because the group conflicts with his beliefs and religious convictions.The resignation announcement sparked a fury of controversy in the community and led to demands by parents that the Gay-Straight Alliance be officially barred from organizing.
Faced with the threat of a lawsuit in support of the gay students, the Lexington-Richland School District 5 school board considered a proposal to ban all extra-curricular clubs.
The board then changed its mind and voted in June to allow clubs, but to give parents the right to decide which clubs their children can join. The board also voted to prohibit clubs from discussing sexually explicit topics in keeping with the district’s abstinence-based curriculum.
At the time Walker repeated his intention to quit over the club. But now, it appears, Walker has changed his mind.
Interim superintendent Herbert Berg received a letter from Walker this week “indicating his desire to remain at Irmo High School,” The State newspaper reported Friday.
Like other employees, Walker’s contract will be up for renewal in the spring. A school district spokesperson did not indicate if he will be offered a new contract.
A study released by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network in 2006 showed that homophobia is widespread in the nation’s schools.
Nearly one in five students reported they had been physically assaulted because of their sexual orientation and over a tenth because of their gender expression.
Three-quarters of students surveyed said that over the past year they heard derogatory remarks such as “faggot” or “dyke” frequently or often at school, and nearly nine out of ten reported hearing “that’s so gay” or “you’re so gay” – meaning stupid or worthless – frequently or often.
Over a third of students said they experienced physical harassment at school on the basis of sexual orientation and more than a quarter on the basis of their gender expression.
The study also showed that bullying has had a negative impact on learning.
This disgusts me. The man’s a mercenary bigot…but that he’s allowed to represent a school and vocally announce–while in the capacity of its principal–opposition to its lgbt students, lgbt americans and contempt for the law…and THIS is what is being focused on?
Vanndean is right…money apparently means more to Eddie than his “religious convictions”!
I’ll save you a seat in hell, Eddie boy!
So when it comes right down to it, the MONEY is more important than the “conflicts with his beliefs and religious convictions.”