Ken Jennings
Sooo it looks like the House Republicans are joining the Fox News commentators on this one…I thought this story wasn’t going anywhere, and it was just one of those ideas pushed by Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck to discredit Obama.
If you don’t know, Ken Jennings is the ‘safe school czar’ and he was also the former head of GLSEN (gay and lesbian student education network). All the uproar came after conservatives discovered that, twenty years ago when Jennings was a teacher, a student approached him to tell him that he was having a sexual relationship with another man. Jennings, 24 at the time, was flummoxed and told the boy to make sure he was using a condom.
Now, this was clearly the wrong advice, and Jennings admits this now. One response to this situation would be “wow, look how ill-equipped teachers are to deal with students like this. It’s a good thing we have someone like Jennings in the administration to push for more teacher-training on issues like this.” Instead, some conservatives are pushing for his resignation, saying that he is clearly unqualified to lead a school safety initiative.
They also throw in the fact that he has pushed for age-appropriate lessons on the gays, to help end anti-gay bullying and make it easier for gay kids in schools. Makes sense, but of course, acknowledging that gay people exist is somehow evil, and the conservatives are having none of it…
