Sacramento, Calif.—Ironically Rebekah Rice, a student at Santa Rosa’s Maria Carillo High School, was herself being harassed by other students because of her religious beliefs, when she was sent to the principal’s office for using the phrase “that’s so gay” in response to her tormentors. Because of her speech, Rice was given a warning and a notation was put in her file.
Rice contends that her words were not meant as a homophobic putdown. The phrase “that’s so gay” is used every day on playgrounds throughout America. Rice questions how her words can be considered hate speech when there was no malice and “that’s so gay” is a phrase “which enjoys widespread currency in youth culture.”
A lawsuit has been filed against the school by Rice’s parents for violation of their daughter’s First Amendment free speech rights.
In Fresno a fourth-grade student at Gibson Elementary School has been suspended because he said “that’s gay” during a soccer game. The student in question is not normally a trouble maker on campus. Another student at Gibson was also sent to the principal’s office for uttering similar words.
“It’s one thing to teach kids to be respectful; it’s something else entirely to enact a regime where only positive viewpoints of homosexuality are allowed, and that’s what we’re concerned about here,” said Matthew McReynolds, an attorney with Pacific Justice Institute. “This sounds a lot like the thought police are back on the prowl in our public schools.”
Parents in Montgomery County, Maryland, are fighting their school district’s homosexual indoctrination agenda and you can too.
Lesson plans in Montgomery County fail to explain the high health risks of certain sexual acts favored by homosexuals and continue to stigmatize those who disapprove of homosexual behavior by calling these families “homophobic.” Citizens in Montgomery County have taken action and have appealed the use of this curriculum to the State Board of Education.
This is an admirable example of concerned parents and other citizens refusing to keep silent and working to protect young children from a destructive agenda.
Karen England is the executive director of the Capitol Resource Institute.
