Although 700 Harwich residents signed a petition opposing the approval of the gay lifestyle in the public schools, including this middle school, the Cape Cod Times tried to hide the story.

Gay Lifestyle Opposed by 700 Harwich Residents

Cape Cod Times Hides the Story

Text of Petition

July 2001

More than 700 Harwich residents have signed a Petition which opposes any teaching which "condones, approves, advocates, promotes or encourages" the gay lifestyle in the public schools. It is titled, "Protect the Children."

But you'll never hear about it if you read only the Cape Cod Times.

The Times totally ignored the first paragraph of the petition. In it, the citizens demanded that the gay lifestyle not be approved in the classrooms. This is the obvious news to be reported.

Although the Times wrote a long story about the Petition, it talked only about the second paragraph which merely repeats state law that schools should notify all parents about any such event. The Times ridiculed the Petition of the 700 citizens because it said notice is already required as the result of a meeting of the high school council in March. But the Times was inaccurate about the March action of the high school council. The "notice" which is required because of that meeting concerns only high school students whereas the Petition affects all grades of all the schools.

The Times article was written by Noelle Barton who also wrote the biased article in March which had the headline, "Parents protest forum on sexual tolerance." In that "news" story she wrote, "But a handful of parents in town don't think school should be a forum for a tolerance lesson." Of course parents want "tolerance," but they wonder who is defining the term.

A Local Issue

Although it has been told to parents many times on Cape Cod that these courses about sex ed are required by the state, this is definitely a local issue and is not mandated by the state. That was also given as a reason by the chairman of the Nauset School Committee for much of what happens in that town's schools on sex ed. (He said that even though the town's committee was voting down a proposal to distribute condoms in the schools. See MassNews, January 2000.)

As a result of his statement, MassNews interviewed the Chairman of the state's Board of Education, James Peyser, in the March 2000 issue.

Peyser said that the curriculum "frameworks" that the state has established are a "guideline." He said, "The framework is entirely a guideline. It is not at all a requirement. There isn't a test, thankfully. Therefore, districts are free to do, literally, whatever they want in this area. There is nothing in the framework that is mandatory. The framework tried to be as neutral as possible in order to underline the fact that specific decisions about curriculum are reserved to the individual school or district."

The controversy in Harwich started earlier in the year when PFLAG (Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) and other homosexual groups visited the high school and gave lectures. PFLAG is an organization which encourages teenagers to adopt the homosexual lifestyle if they feel they are "different." The local state chapter pays one woman, Inez Folsom, to go to high schools and encourage the tolerance of homosexuality. She says that her homosexual son hated himself for what he was doing. He wanted to change. But she supported his gay life. He later died of AIDS. (The story can be found in the MassNews archives under PFLAG.)