Rolling Stone reports on a recent spate of suicides involving teenagers in the Anoka-Hennepin school district, a suburb north of the Twin Cities. Many of the teens were constantly bullied for being gay or perceived as gay. The article also looks at the woefully inadequate response from the school district and the culture of silence it created with its absurd “neutrality” policy on controversial topics, effectively muzzling teachers and school staff from saying anything about homosexuality. The policy was designed to appease local evangelical activists who see themselves as the vanguard against nefarious conspiracies to promote the “gay agenda”, but instead it has left kids feeling vulnerable and isolated as they endure daily torment from their less enlightened peers.
The Anoka area has long been a hotbed of Christian conservatism (it’s the home district of Michele Bachmann), so stories like this aren’t exactly a shock to us locals. Still, it’s disheartening to read about school officials exhibiting the kind of immaturity and herd behavior that one would normally expect from their charges. Perhaps the discrimination lawsuit recently filed against the school district will prompt school officials to begin acting like compassionate adults.
