By J. Edward Pawlick

An unhappy Superintendent of Schools in Acushnet, Harold G. Devine, announced to parents last month that he is stopping the inclusion of homosexuality in the tolerance unit at the middle school.

Devine was obviously startled last month when 50 concerned parents showed up at a special meeting on August 9 to challenge his "investigation" of the article in our August edition which revealed that the "gay agenda" was being promoted in his school system.

When he started the meeting, Devine was pompous and acted like a professor talking to a group of children. But very shortly thereafter, he softened his stance and began to say many times, "I don't know," in answer to questions.

Shortly after the questions started, he volunteered that the principal of the middle school had already decided to remove the subject of homosexuality from the prejudice unit, which was the subject of the article in our newspaper. Because Devine had not announced that earlier, when he was talking from a long, written speech, it is unclear whether he suddenly made that decision to go along with the principal because of the heat he was taking from parents.

It became obvious very quickly that he had not expected such a large turnout at 4:30 in the afternoon and he didn't have answers to their questions. The fact that he was attempting a cover-up was shown by the following:
 

• The teacher who was involved in teaching the gay agenda in his school system, and who obviously knows all the answers, was not present at the meeting. Apparently, the parents will never be allowed to ask her about anything that happened in her classroom. 
• Devine has "taken custody" of the video made by children at the Middle School. In his mind, this seems to have settled everything. And he clearly liked to use that term, "custody," which he apparently thought was a legal term. While most people did not have any problem if he did not choose to show a video of the children, it was not explained why it was shown to a group of homosexual activists at Fistgate. Nor was it explained why Devine couldn't prepare a typewritten transcript without any names of children. He will undoubtedly continue with the mantra that it would invade their privacy even if their names are not mentioned.
• The principal of the school was said to be on vacation, which made the meeting very  frustrating for the parents because Devine did not know much about the subject. When he started reading from his lengthy statement, he said the meeting was only to discuss the truth in the Massachusetts News article, but he never mentioned even one mistake. He only quarreled with the fact that the headline said the school had been prey to the homosexual "agenda," But when questioned, he was unable to define what a homosexual agenda would be.
• Devine claimed he was unaware of any graphic homosexual sex instruction given to the students, but his principal stated in our August issue that a guest speaker recommended by the state had gotten into graphic sex with the students. The principal did not invite that organization to send a speaker again. After he was reminded of that incident by parents, Devine suddenly remembered that this had happened. 

Feel Sorry for Him
"You have to feel sorry for Supt. Devine because it appears as though he had no knowledge of what this teacher was doing," said Atty. J. Edward Pawlick, Publisher of Massachusetts News. "Even the principal was not aware. So why doesn't Devine just admit his mistakes and move on? If he continues in the direction he has gone so far, he is going to lose the respect of all the residents."

Devine embarrassed himself by saying that our reporting of what happened at Fistgate is "hearsay." But any lawyer will quickly correct him on that matter. What happened at that Conference has been reported by a parent who attended the sessions and recorded one of them. He saw it, heard it and made a transcript of it. That is as far from "hearsay" as anyone can get. The parent is the one who wrote the article in our newspaper.

Many people complained to Devine because the meeting was held at 4:30 p.m. when it was difficult for them to attend. Therefore, another meeting is scheduled for Thursday, August 24th at seven p.m. 

However, it appeared from Devine's machinations that what is going to occur will probably be a meeting about parental "notification." Although that is also very important, Devine does not plan to ever let the parents know what really happened at Ford Middle School.