Board's exploitation of children is shameful

By GREG HAMILTON

© St. Petersburg Times, published March 4, 2001

Suffer the children, for they know not when they are being exploited.

The tent revival masquerading as a School Board meeting on Tuesday was fascinating for several reasons, with the greatest being the manipulation of 20 children at the outset of the public comment portion.

After listing the ground rules for comment, chiefly that only one representative of a group should speak rather than every member of that group, chairwoman Patience Nave sat smiling as the kids trampled her rules. Child after child went to the microphone, announced their affiliation with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, and opened their hearts.

Often through tears, the students testified about the role Jesus Christ, and the FCA, have played in their young lives. It was wondrous to see so many youngsters summon the courage to address a large crowd on such a personal topic; it was heartening to hear them speak of their efforts to lead good lives.

It was also totally irrelevant to the subject at hand, and the board majority knew it. Rather than correct the children, and save them from needless anxiety, Nave watched with a Cheshire cat grin as the children played right into her hands.

Only after the last student had spoken, after the last tear was shed and the final plea was made to save the FCA did board member Sandra "Sam" Himmel bother to mention that the FCA was never in any danger.

Where did the kids get this idea? Predictably, the media was blamed. Board member Pat Deutschman said anyone reading the newspapers over the past several months would have drawn this conclusion.

I checked the Times files. Since November, when the questions first were raised about equal access and how the School Board will open its meeting -- the real issues that board faced on Tuesday -- we've printed 22 news articles, columns and editorials on the subjects. Not once did anyone mention that the FCA would be abolished.

So, again, where did this idea originate? Perhaps from the other newspaper in town. Or perhaps from adults who have twisted these issues in the kids' minds and used them to further their larger agenda of getting religion -- their religion -- into the public school system.

Reasonable people can debate whether bedrock Christianity alone can solve the social ills that plague our society or whether the 1963 Supreme Court ruling that removed Bibles from public schools sent our country to hell in a handbasket. They've done so for many, many years.

Many in the audience on Tuesday, I imagine, would like to see the School Board take up these larger issues. But that's not what Tuesday's meeting was about, and the board leaders knew it. That did not, however, prevent them from crassly playing to the audience by manipulating these sincere, and misled, children.

Donald Bates, a local car dealer who has spearheaded a petition drive to unseat board member Carol Snyder for the high crime of speaking her mind, finally brought the political aspect of the debate to the fore.

First, he called upon me, by name, to retract a column I wrote predicting how Tuesday's meeting would play out. (Sorry to disappoint you, Mr. Bates, but my prediction was precisely what happened: religious zealots pushed their point of view; audience members waved Bibles in the air and chanted Jesus' name; no one's opinion was changed; and the board accomplished nothing. The only thing I didn't see coming was the kids being used by adults who should have known better.)

Shaking his petitions in the air, Bates told Snyder her days as a board member were numbered.

That remains to be seen, of course, but we can look to a nearby county for a possible precedent.

Lake County in the early 1990s was wracked by similar struggles after a Christian Coalition majority took over the School Board. After pushing to have creationism taught in the classroom and trying to get certain books pulled from the library, the board majority ordered that students be taught that America's culture and values are superior to all others.

This "America First" policy drew protests from Lake County residents as well as national attention. At the next election, the voters spoke: The Christian Coalition members were all defeated, and the policy was killed.

Ultimately, the adults here will decide who sits on our School Board and, through them, what sort of direction our educational system will take.

Let's hope that the days of adults exploiting children for personal and political gain are over.

© 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111

Contact the Times | Privacy Policy
Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright