Trustee seeks apology for spoof photo
Parents opposing a school program used a picture from a satirical newspaper on their pamphlets.
MARISSA NELSON, Free Press Education Reporter
2004-04-08 03:15:19
A school board trustee is demanding an apology from a parents' group that used a fake photo from a satirical newspaper on its pamphlets opposing the expansion of a safe schools policy. Simply Truths Our Priority, or STOP, handed out pamphlets and computer discs with a 300-page book of Internet research outside a public meeting last week.
The session was a chance for the Thames Valley District school board to get input on its plan to expand the safe schools program -- a move to protect gay and lesbian students.
But STOP argues the board is changing the curriculum and will promote a homosexual lifestyle in schools.
"Satire is apparently lost on rigid individuals," said London trustee Peter Jaffe. "Taking something from a spoof newspaper and presenting it as reality crosses the line. (The photo) plays on people's worst fears. I would hope this group will make a full and public apology."
The photo shows a teacher at the front of a class with explicit sexual images and terms drawn on the board and is supposed to represent one of the "countless" classrooms where homosexuality is promoted.
The picture was copied from the Onion, a satirical newspaper from the United States. The headline of the 1998 story says, " '98 homosexual drive nearing goal."
The story, written out of San Francisco, goes on to say children are being successfully recruited into homosexuality because of the "gay lobby's infiltration of America's public schools."
Marilyn Ashworth of STOP said it's concerned the photo represents what will end up in this region's schools if the board goes ahead with its plan.
"We knew it was a gay paper and we hold that even as a joke, the gay community is proud of their advancements into the safe schools program in the U.S.," she said. "We don't think homosexuality in schools is a joke."
Asked whether she believed it was a real photo, Ashworth said the caption included the teacher's name, city, state and grade.
"We researched in depth and that was one of the things we found," she said, noting the group spent seven weeks accumulating research.
"We don't come by our findings lightly. . . . Whether it was meant to be a joke or not, it's not funny to parents who are trying to protect their children."
Other headlines on the archival page are: Antique dealer sick of appraising smurf collections and Orgy a logistical nightmare.
Sean Mills, president of the Onion, laughed when he heard the news.
"The motto the writers have is we're not going after the right or the left, we're just going after people who are dumb," Mills said.
"We're anti-dumb, we're not anti-anything else . . . They're proving our point. It's a ridiculous notion there'd be recruitment going on. That was the whole point."
Mills said the photo is fake, the Onion has nothing to do with STOP and isn't a gay paper.
"In some ways, if you're going to a satirical news source to prove a serious point . . . you're getting what you deserve."
Trustee Peggy Sattler said she wonders if STOP knew it was a fake photo.
Trustee Linda Stevenson said the photo calls into question the legitimacy of STOP's 300 pages.
"It's not worth the paper it's written on."
---------------------
Here's the photo:
Good lord, I can't believe real people can be that stupid. If I lived in that district, there's no way in hell I'd let people that dumb shape the future of my kids.
