Unsafe Choice for America’s Schools

Another day, another tale of child exploitation. From ABC News :

In the Spring of 1988, a young woman who knew [high school teacher Kevin Jennings] was gay, brought to his office a high school sophomore whom Jennings called “Brewster” in the book.

As Jennings wrote:

“’Brewster has something he needs to talk with you about,’ she intoned ominously. Brewster squirmed at the prospect of telling, and we sat silently for a short while. On a hunch, I suddenly asked ‘What’s his name?’ Brewster’s eyes widened briefly, and then out spilled a story about his involvement with an older man he had met in Boston. I listened, sympathized, and offered advice. He left my office with a smile on his face that I would see every time I saw him on the campus for the next two years, until he graduated.” Jennings in 2000 told a GLSEN conference that Brewster told him he “’met someone in the bus station bathroom and I went home with him.’ High school sophomore, 15 years old. That was the only way he knew how to meet gay people. I was a closeted gay teacher, 24 years old, didn’t know what to say, knew I should say something quickly. So I finally, my best friend had just died of AIDS the week before, I looked at Brewster and said, ‘You know, I hope you knew to use a condom.’ He said to me something I will never forget, He said ‘Why should I, my life isn’t worth saving anyway.’”

That Jennings knew of a sexually active 15-year-old, of any gender, involved with “an older man” and didn’t take steps to report that relationship to the student’s parents or to authorities has made him a target for criticism—long before he was put in charge of the Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools.

In case you missed that: A former high-school teacher admits that he failed to report the sexual exploitation of an obviously depressed, possibly suicidal 15-year-old boy, acknowledges that he did nothing more than say “I hope you knew to use a condom”, and yet—with all this being public knowledge—he’s still the Obama Administration’s first choice to be in charge of the Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools .

Equally unbelievable is the non-apology apology that Jennings issued yesterday:

Jennings today issued a statement saying, “Twenty-one years later I can see how I should have handled the situation differently. I should have asked for more information and consulted legal or medical authorities. Teachers back then had little training and guidance about this kind of thing. All teachers should have a basic level of preparedness. I would like to see the Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools play a bigger role in helping to prepare teachers.”

Teachers back then didn’t have training in “this kind of thing”? By “back then” Jennings means 1988. I graduated high school in 1987 and know full well that his claim is nonsense. This was the era when even elementary students were provided with instruction on HIV/AIDS. How likely is it that a teacher didn’t know that when a child reports having gay sex in bathrooms with strange men that your duty is to report such behavior to the authorities? Are we to believe that a man who graduated magna cum laude from Harvard is too ignorant to know how any moral human being would act? Unfortunately, Jennings later actions show the answer may be “yes.”

Jennings is the founder of GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network). In March 2000, the Massachusetts chapter gave a workshop for children as young as twelve that included  instructions on sado-masochistic homosexual sex acts . Rather than being outraged that such fringe behaviors were being taught to kids by his group, Jennings defended the instruction and tried to get a state court to prevent a tape of the event from being made public.

No doubt he had the best of intentions—he was probably just trying to keep schools “safe” from unenlightened parents.