Queersetti
Bastardo Suave
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From www.txtriangle.com
Superintendent Who Blocked Gay Group Was Having Affair on School Property
By Brent Brumley
Last month Lambda Legal sued the Lubbock Independent School District for barring students from forming a Gay Straight Alliance on campus and recognizing it as a legitimate school club. It now appears the superintendent who wouldn’t allow the organization on school property was engaged in an ongoing extra-marital affair at that very location.
This week the CBS affiliate in Lubbock, CBS-13, revealed that Dr. Jack Clemmons, who suddenly and unexpectedly retired from the city’s schools in March, was engaged in a nearly one-year affair with one of his employees on school property and during school time.
Through an open records request for Dr. Clemmons’ e-mails, reporter James Clark found Clemmons and his lover left a series of messages on school computers, messages that by law are part of the public record. School officials asked the state attorney general to block that request. But eventually the attorney general ordered the schools to turn over the e-mails.
According to the Lubbock television affiliate, the e-mails revealed an on-going affair in graphic detail. On September 19, 2002, Clemmons’ employee wrote, “I will go put up mail around 2:45 meet me there so that maybe I can get one last quick kiss.” Dr. Clemmons replied, “I will be there. Be careful.”
Then in November the superintendent wrote, “You still need to learn my habits and intentions. Like when you ask what you will get if you come in my office and I tell you that you will get a kiss. You should know by now that I mean that I will begin by giving you a kiss but that it will soon lead to a xxxxxx and then I will make love to you if you are willing.”
And then on January 24, Clemmons made an unusual proposition, saying “I will give you an additional $500.00 ... If you will get totally naked with me here in the office. What do you think? I am serious. You would have to be naked and allow me to ‘play’ with your body!” The employee responded that same day “Forget it!!! You can keep your money!”
According to CBS-13, all of these communications took place on school computers and most on school time. The affiliate also reports that less than five hours after offering his employee money in exchange for sexual favors in his office, Clemmons stood in front of a TV camera to defend the school district abstinence-only sex education policy.
“And we certainly don’t want to give any validity to risky behavior by telling children ‘If you’re going to, here’s what you need to do’,” Clemmons said in a CBS 13 interview.
And it wasn’t just the subject of sex education where Clemmons maintained his apparent hypocrisy. Regarding the Gay Student Association (GSA), he stated in an affidavit that “I would have denied other clubs whose basis was sex. I would have denied a Bestiality Club. I would have denied a Gigolo Club. I would have denied a Prostitute Club. Likewise, I would deny any club that has as its basis an illegal act, such as the Marijuana Club, Kids for Cocaine, the Drinking Club, etc.’’
Clemmons suddenly retired from Lubbock Independent Schools after only three years. After he left, LISD kept Dr. Clemmons on the payroll for 99 days that he never had to work. When this happened in mid-March, school board members told CBS-13 that Clemmons wanted to be closer to his family.
The superintendent was included individually in the Lambda Legal suit against the school. The organization holds banning the GSA amounts to nothing more than discrimination.
“The Gay Straight Alliance group is being discriminated against and held to standards that other school groups aren’t, which is both wrong and unlawful. These students have a right to access the same resources as any other on campus school group. The law forbids this kind of discrimination and our recent Supreme Court victory only makes that clearer,” said Brian Chase, a Dallas-based Lambda Legal attorney on the case.
Ricky Waite, 18, who graduated from Lubbock High School in May, began to organize the Gay Straight Alliance in the fall of 2002. The group’s purpose is to provide support for gay and straight students and promote equality in the school system and community. Mirah Curzer, 16, a straight member of the group and plaintiff in the case, joined to support her friends and to show other straight students that fairness is important to everyone. After constructing a number of procedural roadblocks to try to prevent the Gay Straight Alliance from forming, school officials formally denied the group’s application.
“This is about treating students equally,” said Waite. “My friends deserve the same right to form a school group as any other student here.”
Lambda Legal argues that Lubbock High School is not only in violation of the Equal Access Act and the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, but is also violating the school’s own policy, which states regarding the formation of student groups that the school “shall not prohibit student expression solely because other students, teachers, administrators, or parents may disagree with its content.”
“When it struck down Texas’s ‘Homosexual Conduct’ law, the Supreme Court called for gay people to be given full respect, equality and dignity from government institutions. Lubbock High School runs afoul of that by treating this group differently simply because it supports gay students,” Chase said.
Under the Equal Access Act, secondary schools that receive federal funds and allow non-curricular student groups to meet on campus are prohibited from discriminating against any groups based on their viewpoints. Lambda Legal has successfully argued two other Gay Straight Alliance lawsuits, one in California and another in Utah, which set legal precedent in the area. There are now 1,200 such groups at schools across the nation.
Earlier this month, LISD filed an unusual response to the Lambda Legal suit. While Lambda’s suit consisted of a straightforward legal complaint, Lubbock’s response appeared not to address Lambda’s arguments, veering instead into a discussion of sex crimes and vulnerable children.
Lambda’s lawsuit follows what has now become a familiar pattern in this country. High school, or maybe middle school kids fill out forms to set up a Gay Straight Alliance, an after-school club designed to create a space for gay, lesbian, questioning and straight students to get together and talk. In Lubbock’s case, the goals of the GSA included education, improving the relationship between gay and straight students, helping the community, promoting gay rights, talking about safe sex, AIDS, hatred, and helping kids improve their relationship with their families. GSAs also typically arrange parties and workshops, and pursue the same sorts of activities as other after-school clubs.
Lubbock has a host of after-school clubs, ranging from a Latino/a group, to the young Republicans, young Democrats, etc. As the District acknowledges in its response, it has created a limited public forum through the authorization of these clubs, and is therefore subject to the Equal Access Act.
To date, no federal court has ever ruled in favor of a school district that has fallen afoul of the Act by rejecting a GSA. But instead of being daunted by this record, Lubbock lawyers apparently ignored the whole question of the Equal Access Act. The District, wrote the lawyers, has the right to block formation of a club that furthers illegal activity. Under state law, underage homosexual sex is illegal, but the connection between sex and the GSA a mystery. The lawyers also argued, without relevance, that the school is effectively taking the place of parents in watching over the children under their charge during the school day.
Today, some are asking who was watching over the children while the superintendent was sending e-mails.
Meanwhile, the District’s lawyers argue that children don’t have unlimited rights. They’re not allowed to drive cars or drink, for example. The school district has a policy of promoting abstinence and not discussing sex. Indeed, even Clemmons had a morality clause in his contract which stated “Immorality is not confined to sexual matters, but includes conduct inconsistent with rectitude or indicative of corruption, indecency or depravity.”
Superintendent Who Blocked Gay Group Was Having Affair on School Property
By Brent Brumley
Last month Lambda Legal sued the Lubbock Independent School District for barring students from forming a Gay Straight Alliance on campus and recognizing it as a legitimate school club. It now appears the superintendent who wouldn’t allow the organization on school property was engaged in an ongoing extra-marital affair at that very location.
This week the CBS affiliate in Lubbock, CBS-13, revealed that Dr. Jack Clemmons, who suddenly and unexpectedly retired from the city’s schools in March, was engaged in a nearly one-year affair with one of his employees on school property and during school time.
Through an open records request for Dr. Clemmons’ e-mails, reporter James Clark found Clemmons and his lover left a series of messages on school computers, messages that by law are part of the public record. School officials asked the state attorney general to block that request. But eventually the attorney general ordered the schools to turn over the e-mails.
According to the Lubbock television affiliate, the e-mails revealed an on-going affair in graphic detail. On September 19, 2002, Clemmons’ employee wrote, “I will go put up mail around 2:45 meet me there so that maybe I can get one last quick kiss.” Dr. Clemmons replied, “I will be there. Be careful.”
Then in November the superintendent wrote, “You still need to learn my habits and intentions. Like when you ask what you will get if you come in my office and I tell you that you will get a kiss. You should know by now that I mean that I will begin by giving you a kiss but that it will soon lead to a xxxxxx and then I will make love to you if you are willing.”
And then on January 24, Clemmons made an unusual proposition, saying “I will give you an additional $500.00 ... If you will get totally naked with me here in the office. What do you think? I am serious. You would have to be naked and allow me to ‘play’ with your body!” The employee responded that same day “Forget it!!! You can keep your money!”
According to CBS-13, all of these communications took place on school computers and most on school time. The affiliate also reports that less than five hours after offering his employee money in exchange for sexual favors in his office, Clemmons stood in front of a TV camera to defend the school district abstinence-only sex education policy.
“And we certainly don’t want to give any validity to risky behavior by telling children ‘If you’re going to, here’s what you need to do’,” Clemmons said in a CBS 13 interview.
And it wasn’t just the subject of sex education where Clemmons maintained his apparent hypocrisy. Regarding the Gay Student Association (GSA), he stated in an affidavit that “I would have denied other clubs whose basis was sex. I would have denied a Bestiality Club. I would have denied a Gigolo Club. I would have denied a Prostitute Club. Likewise, I would deny any club that has as its basis an illegal act, such as the Marijuana Club, Kids for Cocaine, the Drinking Club, etc.’’
Clemmons suddenly retired from Lubbock Independent Schools after only three years. After he left, LISD kept Dr. Clemmons on the payroll for 99 days that he never had to work. When this happened in mid-March, school board members told CBS-13 that Clemmons wanted to be closer to his family.
The superintendent was included individually in the Lambda Legal suit against the school. The organization holds banning the GSA amounts to nothing more than discrimination.
“The Gay Straight Alliance group is being discriminated against and held to standards that other school groups aren’t, which is both wrong and unlawful. These students have a right to access the same resources as any other on campus school group. The law forbids this kind of discrimination and our recent Supreme Court victory only makes that clearer,” said Brian Chase, a Dallas-based Lambda Legal attorney on the case.
Ricky Waite, 18, who graduated from Lubbock High School in May, began to organize the Gay Straight Alliance in the fall of 2002. The group’s purpose is to provide support for gay and straight students and promote equality in the school system and community. Mirah Curzer, 16, a straight member of the group and plaintiff in the case, joined to support her friends and to show other straight students that fairness is important to everyone. After constructing a number of procedural roadblocks to try to prevent the Gay Straight Alliance from forming, school officials formally denied the group’s application.
“This is about treating students equally,” said Waite. “My friends deserve the same right to form a school group as any other student here.”
Lambda Legal argues that Lubbock High School is not only in violation of the Equal Access Act and the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, but is also violating the school’s own policy, which states regarding the formation of student groups that the school “shall not prohibit student expression solely because other students, teachers, administrators, or parents may disagree with its content.”
“When it struck down Texas’s ‘Homosexual Conduct’ law, the Supreme Court called for gay people to be given full respect, equality and dignity from government institutions. Lubbock High School runs afoul of that by treating this group differently simply because it supports gay students,” Chase said.
Under the Equal Access Act, secondary schools that receive federal funds and allow non-curricular student groups to meet on campus are prohibited from discriminating against any groups based on their viewpoints. Lambda Legal has successfully argued two other Gay Straight Alliance lawsuits, one in California and another in Utah, which set legal precedent in the area. There are now 1,200 such groups at schools across the nation.
Earlier this month, LISD filed an unusual response to the Lambda Legal suit. While Lambda’s suit consisted of a straightforward legal complaint, Lubbock’s response appeared not to address Lambda’s arguments, veering instead into a discussion of sex crimes and vulnerable children.
Lambda’s lawsuit follows what has now become a familiar pattern in this country. High school, or maybe middle school kids fill out forms to set up a Gay Straight Alliance, an after-school club designed to create a space for gay, lesbian, questioning and straight students to get together and talk. In Lubbock’s case, the goals of the GSA included education, improving the relationship between gay and straight students, helping the community, promoting gay rights, talking about safe sex, AIDS, hatred, and helping kids improve their relationship with their families. GSAs also typically arrange parties and workshops, and pursue the same sorts of activities as other after-school clubs.
Lubbock has a host of after-school clubs, ranging from a Latino/a group, to the young Republicans, young Democrats, etc. As the District acknowledges in its response, it has created a limited public forum through the authorization of these clubs, and is therefore subject to the Equal Access Act.
To date, no federal court has ever ruled in favor of a school district that has fallen afoul of the Act by rejecting a GSA. But instead of being daunted by this record, Lubbock lawyers apparently ignored the whole question of the Equal Access Act. The District, wrote the lawyers, has the right to block formation of a club that furthers illegal activity. Under state law, underage homosexual sex is illegal, but the connection between sex and the GSA a mystery. The lawyers also argued, without relevance, that the school is effectively taking the place of parents in watching over the children under their charge during the school day.
Today, some are asking who was watching over the children while the superintendent was sending e-mails.
Meanwhile, the District’s lawyers argue that children don’t have unlimited rights. They’re not allowed to drive cars or drink, for example. The school district has a policy of promoting abstinence and not discussing sex. Indeed, even Clemmons had a morality clause in his contract which stated “Immorality is not confined to sexual matters, but includes conduct inconsistent with rectitude or indicative of corruption, indecency or depravity.”
