Responses of Hugh Allen to GLAA 2004 Questionnaire
for D.C. Board of Education Candidates
| Yes/No (+/- 2) |
Substance (+/- 4) |
Record (+/- 3) |
Championship (+/- 1) |
Total (+/- 10) |
| 2 | 3.5 | 1 | 0 | +6.5 |
1. Do you recognize the right of our public school students to organize clubs to promote lesbian and gay civil rights, to combat homophobic violence and prejudice, and to provide socializing opportunities for lesbian and gay youth?
Yes, I support students' rights to organize clubs that expand their learning opportunities, promote tolerance, and enhance their self-growth. I believe that it is particularly important for students who are often subject to prejudice to organize clubs to promote diversity and understanding within our schools. In the District that I am running to represent on the School Board, District 2, Wilson High School is setting an exemplary example with their Gay-Straight Alliance. As a member of Wilson's PTA, I supported a successful effort to provide funding for student activities, including training in diversity and conflict resolution. Such training is necessary to create a welcoming and safe learning environment for everyone.
The right of students to organize clubs is upheld by D.C. Public School policy, the D.C. Human Rights Act, as well as the federal Equal Access Act. As a Board Member, I would require Superintendent Janey to work with any administrators, principals, or teachers who object to a student group's right to organize, in order to ensure that they understand the law and abide by it. For those who continue to disregard the law, Superintendent Janey should take appropriate measures to enforce the law.
2. Do you recognize the right of students to bring dates of the same sex to school proms and other official public school social functions?
Yes, I recognize the right of students to bring dates of the same sex to all official public school social functions. Same-sex dates should not be singled out as unique, but rather part of the diversity of expression of students that is critical to their development as healthy young people. Any administrator who interferes with that right is violating D.C. Public School Policy, and should be addressed by Superintendent Janey as stated above.
3. Will you oppose efforts to restrict or censor books or other materials in our public school libraries that discuss homosexuality in a positive and supportive manner?
Yes, I oppose all efforts to restrict or censor books and materials in our public school libraries. As learning centers, libraries should promote tolerance, yet our libraries are not functioning as they should be. Across the system, D.C.P.S. libraries are inadequate in providing students with current book collections, information technology, and full-time librarians. Recent budget cuts have eliminated 21 more school librarians, and reduced others school librarians to part-time. As a Board member, I will do a better job of managing our budget, and as a result, our libraries are more likely to receive the funding necessary to update book collections to include materials on homosexuality, race, and other aspects of diversity.
4. Do you support the efforts of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) to provide gay positive books to DCPS school libraries?
Yes. If elected a Member of the Board of Education, I will request that Superintendent Janey have the Director of DCPS libraries develop an initiative to facilitate various organizations committed to improving literacy - including the Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) - to contribute regularly, books and other reading material to the schools' libraries. PFLAG books will also provide factual information and a positive understanding for public school students' in their learning about lesbians and gays.
5. Do you favor training programs for professional development of teachers, counselors, and other school system staff, such as those offered by the Sexual Minority Youth Assistance League (SMYAL), to help these professionals to nurture positive identity formation for lesbian and gay students?
Yes. I am proposing that the Board of Education work with Superintendent Janey to establish a Professional Development Institute to provide focused, regular, and rigorous learning support to teachers, counselors, and principals. This Institute will be funded by outside resource partners such as foundations and business organizations. Part of the training programs will include learning about sexual harassment and how to prohibit it in the work place. Organizations such as the Sexual Minority Youth Assistance League (SMYAL) would be invited to provide regular training that enhance positive learning about lesbians and gays.
6. From time to time, D.C. public school teachers have invited openly gay men and women to speak in their classes and to answer students' questions about homosexuality. Do you support the right of our teachers to continue inviting such speakers?
Yes. The creation of a Profession Development Institute that I outlined in question number 5, would maintain a list of speakers and expert resource persons to be available to teachers in their classrooms to supplement students' learning. Included on this list of expert speakers will be openly gay men and women who can join teachers in their classroom to discuss with students topics of homosexuality and sexual harassment.
7. Do you support the condom availability program established in 1992, and operated by the Department of Health, in our public schools?
Absolutely, yes. If elected as the Board of Education Member for District 2, I will work with the other members of the Board to request Superintendent Janey to provide a report on the current status of the Condom Availability Program and his recommendations for improving the effectiveness of this Program. Also, I will work with organizations like the Senior High Alliance of Principals, Parents, and Educators (S.H.A.P.P.E.), who meet monthly with high school principals, teachers, and parents, to develop an initiative supporting Superintendent Janey's efforts to revitalize the Condom Availability Program in all high schools.
8. Will you work to implement a comprehensive sex education program in the D.C. Public Schools that teaches that homosexuality is part of the normal range of human sexuality, consistent with existing DCPS policy?
Yes. A comprehensive, age-appropriate sexual education program for all students must be an integral part of students' learning. It's my understanding that such a program will include topics and discussion on contraception, anatomy, abstinence, homosexuality, and personal decisions regarding parenting. A comprehensive sexual education program, I maintain, will provide current and factual information that students need to protect themselves against HIV disease and sexually transmitted diseases. If elected to the Board of Education, I will join with other Board members to recommend that a comprehensive, school based sexual education program be incorporated in DCPS' academic reform initiatives (See Council of Great City Schools Report for carrying out academic reform in DCPS which was adopted earlier this year by the Board of Education.)
9. Will you oppose the use of either federal or District taxpayer funds to promote so-called "abstinence-only-until-marriage" sex education that undermines safer-sex programs by discouraging the use of condoms and that tells gay and lesbian students that they must be celibate forever because they may not legally marry?
Yes. It appears to me that an "abstinence-only-until-marriage" sex education program is an attempt use a biased, one shoe fits all approach to sexual education. If elected to the Board of Education, I will vigorously object to this most narrowly focused type of sexual education and fight for a comprehensive, age-appropriate sexual education program to be carried out in our public schools.
10. The D.C. Human Rights Act prohibits the District from conferring any "benefit" or "advantage" to any group not fully in compliance with the D.C. Human Rights Act. Currently DCPS provides recruiting opportunities, school programs, and direct sponsorship of scout troops despite the finding of the D.C. Human Rights Commission that the Boy Scouts' discriminatory policy against gay people is illegal. Will you work to end the special benefits that the Boy Scouts receive and require that they be treated as any other outside group?
Yes. Although I am not fully aware of all the alleged special treatment practices that DCPS provides to the Boy Scouts, if elected to the Board of Education, I will, however, request that Superintendent Janey investigate DCPS' relationship with the Boy Scouts and review any findings about this organization from the D. C. Human Rights Commission. The Superintendent will report to the Board of Education the results of his review and recommendations for establishing an appropriate working relationship with the Boy Scouts of America.
11. Recent federal court rulings and D.C. law recognize that harassment against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students is illegal with the school system liable if harassment continues. Do you support the DCPS policy designed to stop harassment and sexual harassment?
Absolutely, yes. Although the Board of Education policy is in effect in DCPS to prevent sexual harassment and discrimination and to enforce compliance when sexual harassment occurs, DCPS needs to have regular training for new staff and refresher courses for tenured staff, principals, and other administrators. If elected to the Board of Education Member, I will join with the other Board Members to have the Superintendent develop a plan with action steps to ensure that sexual harassment is not tolerated, that violations of Board policy for preventing sexual harassment is strictly enforced, and that there is regular, appropriate training and refresher courses for new and tenured staff.
12. Will you oppose both federally and locally funded voucher programs that place students in religious schools and outside the protections of the D.C. Human Rights Act?
As a member of the DC Congress of PTAs, I represented that organization in opposing school vouchers. Although I respect any family's decision to use vouchers, school vouchers or "student scholarship initiatives" drain resources needed to continue the work of reforming our public schools. To meet the educational challenge of providing a quality education for all our children and youth, we need a predictable level of public investment to our reform efforts, and our efforts to repair and develop our deteriorating school buildings. Moreover, I resent that Congress imposed a federally funded voucher program in DCPS without honoring the right of the tax paying citizens to make their own decision about school vouchers. And I support the concerns of the Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance about lesbian and gay students, teachers, principal, and other staff in religiously-affiliated schools not having the anti-discrimination protections of DC's Human Rights Act.
Record
Your record is part of your rating. Please list any actions that you have taken that may help illustrate your record on behalf of gay men, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgenders.