Ed Brayton is a journalist, commentator and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of 
Memphis City Schools is apparently standing by the school principal who outed a gay couple. And boy is their argument ridiculous. They released a public statement that gives this background for what happened:
Unfortunately, in fall 2007, we received numerous complaints from LeMoyne-Owen College faculty and staff that some of our student couples were involved in explicit sexual behavior in public view on the college campus.In light of this information from LeMoyne-Owen faculty and staff, the principal of Hollis F. Price made several general announcements to the student body that this behavior would not be tolerated. Regrettably, the improper behavior continued. Therefore, the principal felt it appropriate to notify the parents of those children she knew to be involved romantically.
I hope they don't plan on sticking to that argument; it isn't gonna work. If you have reports of kids engaging in explicit sexual behavior in public view, then you deal with the students who did that. You don't go after every single student who is involved in a relationship with another student. If they're in public view, it shouldn't be that difficult to narrow it down and find out who was involved.
And they damn well better have a documented report of two guys engaging in explicit sexual behavior or they've got even bigger problems. If the reports they got and have documented are about boy-girl couples fooling around on campus, there certainly isn't the slightest justification for even thinking about investigating those who don't fit that profile.
The rest of their response is no better:
The principal did not list any information other than students' names on her personal call list, and she certainly did not specify the sexual orientation of any student. Additionally, the list was never posted publicly anywhere at the school.
No, but she listed couples; when you have a couple listed where they are both boys, you don't have to write "gay" next to their name. And no one has accused the principal of posting the list publicly; the accusation is that she hung the list next to her desk where anyone visiting her office could see it - and several people report having seen it there. This school district is not doing themselves any favors by circling the wagons to make bad arguments.
Comments
If you ever need a definition of "disingenuous", there you go.
Posted by: T. Bruce McNeely | May 5, 2008 10:16 AM
How does the college know that these students came from this particular high school?
How many gay couples do you think would publically "make out" on a college campus in a southern city?
This argument does not negate the fact that she called the mom of one of the boys and "outed" him. It does not negate the fact that she publivcally "outed" him to the school by hanging up the list.
Posted by: Rev. AJB | May 5, 2008 10:23 AM
Why is it the school's responsibility to police what their kids do off-campus? If the kids were at the College on a school-sponsored activity, that would make a difference, but if not, what's the connection?
Posted by: kehrsam | May 5, 2008 10:57 AM
i used to be a school teacher AND a college professor. this entire scenario is absurd. the principal should be fired, but what will probably happen is some magic paper shuffling where her request for transfer is finally approved and she's given a new school to mangle up in a different district. either that or she'll be reassigned to an administrative role that doesn't involve direct management of students. they'll be lucky if they don't get sued.
Posted by: jack | May 5, 2008 10:59 AM
I wonder how the boys who were outed are dealing with all this. Not only were they outed to their family and school, but thanks to the internet they've been outed on a global scale.
It sucks that they've been forced into this position. But at the same time I hope they are able to embrace the power this situation has temporaily granted them and challenge these folks head on. Looks like the district is providing them a sustantial target.
Posted by: Abby Normal | May 5, 2008 11:04 AM
Posted by: Taz | May 5, 2008 11:50 AM
Well, at least this principal has been "outed" as a complete bigot and moron.
Posted by: Angela | May 5, 2008 11:55 AM
It means that if this principal had been discriminating against mixed-race couples rather than same-sex couples, the school would be singing a different tune. In that situation I'm sure they'd pretty easily see that the behavior was inappropriate, and that none of the excuses given exonerate her of wrongdoing.
Posted by: Wes | May 5, 2008 12:04 PM
I was curious about the situation here. A sigh school located on a college campus, and the faculty/staff complaining about PDAs of the high schoolers, but not the college coeds? It seems the college is a private institution somehow affiliated with "United Church of Christ", at least according to Wikipedia. The schools site lists dozens of Baptist churches as "faith-based partners". http://www.loc.edu/Advancement/Faithbased%20Partners/Faithbased%20Partners.html
Meanwhile, the high school is considered a Memphis public school. There's just a whiff of religious bias here. Seems like a strange setup, rife for controversy.
Posted by: Taz | May 5, 2008 12:37 PM
I meant "ripe" for controversy, not "rife".
Posted by: Taz | May 5, 2008 12:42 PM
I also suspect the school district of inuendo in its reference to incidents of "explicit sexual activity". That terminology gives the impression that students have been having intercourse or giving blow jobs in public, on campus, which, though conceivable, is highly unlikely. Previous reports have referred to "public displays of affection", which typically refers to holding hands, hugging, and kissing, and this is of course much more likely. (Indeed, unless it is done to excess so that it interferes with school activities, I don't think that it is any of the school's business whether students hold hands, etc.)
Posted by: Bill Pos | May 5, 2008 4:26 PM
The actual words used by the school district are "explicit sexual behavior" rather than "explicit sexual activity" as I misquoted above, but that doesn't change the point.
Posted by: Bill Poser | May 5, 2008 4:28 PM
Yeah, that was my first thought too. Exactly how are they defining "explicit sexual behavior"--does kissing qualify? I'd bet it does.
Posted by: Skemono | May 5, 2008 8:58 PM
The Memphis School system is total fubar. Also, you would have to understand the local black community, COGIC and the Memphis interracial dynamics. This town has a whole lot of disparity. It really shows through the dispensation of the school board and the city and county governments.
None of the report surprises me in the least.
Posted by: James Taylor | May 5, 2008 10:34 PM
Did anyone involved ever define what they meant by "explicit sexual behavior?" You'd be amazed by what spme people file under that label. A friend of my mother's once said her son had taken off his shirt because the high-school's AC had conked out; and the school administrators called that a "sexual act," locked him up in detention, and forced his mom to take an afternoon off work to come to the school and hear a long stupid lecture about personal conduct before even seeing him.
Some school administrators bring some bizarre sexual hangups to their work. Maybe we need to create a national registry to keep track of them...
Posted by: Raging Bee | May 5, 2008 11:33 PM
I didn't say it before, but I'll say it now: this principal should not just be fired, but banned from all positions involving education or supervision of minors.
In fact, I hear there are many exciting career opportunities in the fast food industry in which her skills could be put to better use!
Posted by: Valhar2000 | May 6, 2008 7:52 AM
And the school thinks this is a viable defense for their actions??? I want a list of names of the people who complained made public. Think that will happen?
Posted by: Anysia | May 6, 2008 10:15 PM
This is just soul-splinteringly stupid.
Posted by: Cobalt | May 7, 2008 12:35 AM