Oregon School District forces LGBT kids to read bible as punishment

[Astreja]

The OP demands firing, blacklisting, and personally bankrupting someone. For all the talk on AF about how hateful Christians are for having opinions, it should be obvious from the OP who the real haters are. They want to destroy lives.

When someone working in a fiduciary position with children fails to protect them and inflicts additional suffering, IMO those adults' lives should be destroyed.  They have no business working with children at all, and I fully support the total destruction of their careers for the rest of their lives.

No. Fucking. Mercy.

[Neo-Scholastic]

...I fully support the total destruction of their careers for the rest of their lives.

No. Fucking. Mercy.

"First they came for the Jews..."

[vorlon13]

sounded to me like it was the kids getting clobbered first, and by folks who should know better . . .

[emjay]

You can't take social and sexuality issues out of the classroom because that's where they're developing; gay kids can no more put their social and sexual development on hold for school than straight kids can. And then faced with bullying on account of that, and the teachers side with or turn a blind eye to the bullies because of their religious beliefs, do you think that's right or wrong? If you were a teacher in that situation, what would you do?

No child should be bullied for any reason. As I understand it, bullying has less to do with whatever pretext is attributed to it and more to do with a simple perceived power imbalance. Bullies make excuses to target other kids that appear weak and vulnerable regardless of their demographic. ...

Fair enough... I see what you're saying here.

I do not know what should be done about it. I know that schools have anti-bullying programs now-a-days and I only know about them second had. The general consensus is that school officials cannot be everywhere at all times to stop teasing, etc. ...

Of course they can't be everywhere, but as long as wherever they are they're not joining in, that's all I'm asking for. Based on the way you've framed it... as about power imbalances regardless of context, do we agree then that for any teacher doing that in that position, regardless of context, it's an abuse of power? That it's just as much an abuse of power if it's a gay kid in a predominantly straight and/or Christian school as it would be if it was a Christian kid in a predominantly atheist school with atheist teachers siding with atheist bullies? That regardless of context, that sort of behaviour on the part of teachers can only send two messages: one to the bullies... telling them that their behaviour is sanctioned at the highest levels in the institution... which can only make them grow bolder in their attacks... and one to the victim... telling them that they cannot even rely on the institution for support and protection. That in either... or any other case... it's a serious abuse of power on the part of the teacher and an issue that needs to be addressed, regardless of context/pretext?

There also often are issues at home that teachers cannot hope to remedy. Children are encouraged to band together and confront bullies with social pressure,..."not cool", etc. Turning it into a social identity issue doesn't seem helpful to me. When the issue is framed as one between abuse of power and vulnerability, then children can more easily cross demographic and cliche lines. Maybe the solution is not to emphasize tribal identities; but rather, to focus on common causes. Maybe then you would see more Christian kids standing up for the weak (like they should be doing) by recognizing a common humanity despite profound differences of worldview.

Funnily enough I'm just reading about that... social psychology... intergroup conflict... what divides groups and what brings them together... and as you say, a common goal... inclusion rather than exclusion... seems to be the way forward. That if you put two opposing groups together in close proximity... then there will be tension and rivalry... but if you break down the barriers of those groups, by finding common goals where everyone's included, then groups come together. Like having a school-wide project to bring together all the cliques. So I see what you're saying... that instead of focusing on the differences, it may be better to focus on the commonalities of bullying... the power imbalance... to bring people together over it regardless of context/pretext.

[pocaracas]

Reading the Bible as a punishment for anything seems pretty severe. Sooner have thumbscrews.

Boru

Well... it is a way to make kids come to look at that bible as a punishment and, thus, desire to avoid it.
It's like punishing kids with making them go to bed... they end up seeing bed as a place of punishment and then have trouble going to sleep on it.

[vorlon13]

seems like an effective technique for making atheists

hard for me to oppose . . .


smack the little fuckers up side the head with the Good Book, Jesusseddso.

[Astreja]

...I fully support the total destruction of their careers for the rest of their lives.

No. Fucking. Mercy.

"First they came for the Jews..."

I'm getting more of a Nuremberg vibe myself.

So what's your solution, Neo?  How do we keep adults in authority from exacerbating the suffering of kids who are being bullied, if not by removing them permanently from roles that allow them to have authority over kids?

[RoadRunner79]

I don't think that articles sounds like anything like that was occurring, so I think you are trying to blow things out of proportion. 

RR, how can you make statements about what was or wasn't occurring? Are you saying OP was misrepresenting the article? (I disagree.) Or are you saying that the alleged victim of bullying is making misstatements? (How can you know that?)

It's safe to say that if the claims in the article are true, that's bullshit! I live in the Appalachian mountains, and I've seen gay bullying first hand. It does happen, and grown adults do participate in it. One of my best friends in the world is gay, and when he lived in my hometown with me, he internalized a lot of bullying that was heaped upon him. He even got engaged to a woman at one point thinking that was a way to resolve the issue. He had a master's degree in computer science but was wasting away in the middle of nowhere subjecting himself to the judgments of lower lifeforms. At several points, he confided in me that he was contemplating suicide.

But one of his friends invited him to live with him down in DC. He got a good-paying job, a boyfriend, and began going out to gay clubs. When I went to visit him, he was like a new person: optimistic, happy, and with a future ten magnitudes brighter than when he was tending bar in the middle of ignorant-ville. Now he makes six figures, has put his nephew through college, and is preparing to do the same for his niece. He is a giving, caring, self-realized person who IMO outclasses every single ignorant redneck who judged him for being gay--(by the way, about half of them are either in prison or addicted to opiates right now--ie. the opposite of putting their nieces and nephews through college).

Gay bullying is destructive any way you slice it. If Christians were half as moral as they pretended to be, they would never condone treating anyone in an ill manner simply because they are gay. They would realize that, even assuming a gay "lifestyle" is self-destructive (which it isn't) that it isn't nearly as destructive as abusing and ostracizing someone because they are different. My friend is a perfect example of this.

I think you misunderstood.   It's seems difficult to say, exactly what was happening from the article. I think that we agree here.   It could certainly be crossing a line, and it could be someone blowing things out of proportion in the opposite direction as well.   And I'm not supporting bullying.   I am fairly certain however that the picture which was posted of the Spanish Inquisition, is making an over-reaching statement at this point (with the information given).

[Pitsligo]

...I fully support the total destruction of their careers for the rest of their lives.

No. Fucking. Mercy.

"First they came for the Jews..."

Then they actually came for the homosexuals, and what we're discussing suggests it could easily happen again. If you're true to the spirit of your quote, then you'll join us in condemning the teachers who have created a climate of fear in the LGBT students because this is how it starts.

[Angrboda]

You can't take social and sexuality issues out of the classroom because that's where they're developing; gay kids can no more put their social and sexual development on hold for school than straight kids can. And then faced with bullying on account of that, and the teachers side with or turn a blind eye to the bullies because of their religious beliefs, do you think that's right or wrong? If you were a teacher in that situation, what would you do?

No child should be bullied for any reason. As I understand it, bullying has less to do with whatever pretext is attributed to it and more to do with a simple perceived power imbalance. Bullies make excuses to target other kids that appear weak and vulnerable regardless of their demographic. I do not know what should be done about it. I know that schools have anti-bullying programs now-a-days and I only know about them second had. The general consensus is that school officials cannot be everywhere at all times to stop teasing, etc. There also often are issues at home that teachers cannot hope to remedy. Children are encouraged to band together and confront bullies with social pressure,..."not cool", etc. Turning it into a social identity issue doesn't seem helpful to me. When the issue is framed as one between abuse of power and vulnerability, then children can more easily cross demographic and cliche lines. Maybe the solution is not to emphasize tribal identities; but rather, to focus on common causes. Maybe then you would see more Christian kids standing up for the weak (like they should be doing) by recognizing a common humanity despite profound differences of worldview.

But apparently, according to you, it's okay as long as it is the school itself that is doing the bullying.