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Published: April 24, 2007
“School supports Sodomy”
Demonstrators gather outside Sacramento-area high school where students were suspended for wearing T-shirts with anti-homosexuality slogans
More than 100 people joined a demonstration yesterday outside Rio Linda High School near Sacramento to protest the suspension of students who wore T-shirts to school expressing their disapproval of last week’s “Day of Silence,” a nationwide event sponsored by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network.
 Around a dozen students were suspended at Rio Linda High School and at San Juan High School in nearby Citrus Heights after they refused to take off T-shirts that bore passages from the Bible, and slogans like “Sodomy is Sin” and “Homosexuality is a Sin.” School officials refused to disclose the exact number of students who were suspended.
Jacques Whitfield, lawyer for the Grant Joint Union High School District, which runs Rio Linda High School, said the T-shirts “could rise to the level of hate speech” and would not be tolerated.
The protesters outside Rio Linda High School yesterday carried placards reading, “School persecutes Christians” and “School supports Sodomy.” Police detained five of the protesters when they tried to go into the school to talk to the principal, but let them go after telling them they would be charged with trespassing if the came back onto school grounds.
Around 20 students inside the school were called to the principal’s office after they came to school yesterday morning wearing the same T-shirts that prompted last week’s suspensions.
The suspended students have complained that their First Amendment rights were violated, especially since school officials did not bother students wearing shirts with pro-homosexual messages and the “gay” rainbow colors.
School district attorney Whitfield and school officials reportedly met with some of the protest leaders inside the school as the picketers continued their demonstration outside. He later told reporters an agreement had been reached that will permit students to wear the T-shirts as long as “offensive” words are covered with duct tape. Among the words deemed offensive was “sodomy.”
Student suspensions over the “Day of Silence” were also reported elsewhere in California.
Posted Tuesday, April 24, 2007 7:32 AM By Margie
As a subtitute teacher in the San Juan Unified School District and a practicing Catholic, I am ashamed of the way San Juan H.S. treated these students.
Free speech for one group of students is allowed, while free speech for another group is found offensive. Perhaps they find sodomy offensive. Perhaps the Word of God finds sodomy offensive. Perhaps the students should obey God's law rather than man's law when it comes to speaking the truth in love.
This "Day of Silence" in the Sacramento schools has become a day to silence those who are offended and to reward the offensive.
Woe to those who call evil good and good evil.
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Posted Tuesday, April 24, 2007 4:59 PM By Patricia Mendoza
While I disagree with homosexuality completely, as a high school teacher, I don't support the wearing of the T-shirts. High schools are so torn with fighting about just about anything on a daily basis. It could incite aggression towards the gay youth and that is not part of our Christian goals.
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Posted Tuesday, April 24, 2007 5:31 PM By Mandin
I wonder if the suppression of these anti-gay shirts is proper under the Supreme Court decision Tinker v. Des Moines.
Possibly, gays who see anti-gay shirts are more likely to cause educational disorder and disruption than non-gays who see pro-gay shirts. This would be ironic . . . constitutional rights based on what type of person is more violent? No, I doubt this is a good distinction to make. Clearly, either the gays and the non-gays should be able to wear their message shirts, or neither should.
I go with both.
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Posted Tuesday, April 24, 2007 9:13 PM By Laurette Elsberry
I think the effort made by the students of the Sacramento high schools was terrific. Why should the perversion of sodomy be glorified in any way, much less by pro-"gay" students in their "Day of Silence". The Black and Slavic students who told the truth - that sodomy and hatred are sin - showed more guts than our bishops and priests who cower in the face of homosexuality.
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Posted Tuesday, April 24, 2007 9:29 PM By George
Sounds like an idea all of our children can implement in all of our high schools accross the state.
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Posted Wednesday, April 25, 2007 5:45 AM By Mamie
It's getting to be quite a challenge to not look upon private education as the only alternative to combat these types of unorthodox assaults on our young. Day in and day out our children are subjected to a homosexual agenda blatantly shoved in their faces. It's an odious lifestyle and those who advocate it are not promoting tolerance. What they are promoting indoctrination.
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Posted Wednesday, April 25, 2007 8:09 AM By SFC Brummett
I remember when our schools use to promote Christianity and rebuke open sin but now Christians are being suspended for passing out Christian tracks and taking a stand against sinfull activity. Hmmm seems like the Holy Bible said something about this. Oh yeah God destroyed the world once for it's evil and then nuked Sodom and Gomorah for the same thing. I suspect it won't be long before God moves again. I am ready how about you.
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Posted Wednesday, April 25, 2007 9:27 AM By Pat F
Yeah to the Catholics! I am really tired of our "children" being brainwashed by the the liberal left at every level. There is an old saying that I Iearned as a young CATHOLIC child: "What's good for the goose is good for the gander". That pretty well sums it all up. The first amendment was for ALL the people not just for a chosen few that have decided that their gender choices and lifestyle MUST be acceptable to everyone with NO rights for those that have the RIGHT to oppose. Let's get real here. Teach the kids the three "R's" along with respect and responsibility. It's about time to take this nit picking crap out of the schools and let our kids grow up normally instead of by direction of being taught to be "offended" by anyone that has a healthy and opposing opinion.
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Posted Wednesday, April 25, 2007 1:17 PM By appalled
Attacking other people in the name of God is disgraceful. Free speech does not include insulting, threatening or attempting to intimidate your fellow students. wearing a "pro gay" t-shirt is not persecuting christians, it simply reinforces an individual right protected by the laws of this nation. if you have a problem with that, or you are threatened by it, thats your own problem.
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Posted Wednesday, April 25, 2007 4:58 PM By Bob
Appalled, get your head on "straight". Look up the definition of sodomy. Afraid of the truth. We'll have to remove all dictionaries for hate speech. What a world you live in.
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Posted Thursday, April 26, 2007 5:27 AM By Michael Powell
It turns my stomach when the self-righteous, homophobic, bigot's spew their hatred and intolerance against other people's children without first asking themselves, "what if MY child was gay! How would I feel!"
You people are DESPICABLE!
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Posted Thursday, April 26, 2007 3:45 PM By KA
Mr. Powell, no one is born homosexual, they are hurt, abused, confused, indoctrinated, lied to, etc. Current medical research has established a predisposition but not a predetermination to practicing homosexuality. In fact, being a sin which can possibly send one to hell for all eternity, it is a supreme act of love to suffer at the hands of the indoctrinators and promoters in hopes of saving even one soul. This movement has never been about tolerance, as we see by the day of silence in which people must accept the view or be punished, labeled and villified. Further it is never necessary or appropriate to tolerate evil. Tolerating evil is an inversion of Truth. May Almighty God help you to know the Way, the Truth and the Life.
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Posted Friday, May 04, 2007 2:17 PM By Kristen
Again and Again, high schools are suspended for supporting views that are not the dominant held views. This is just like when students were suspended for wearing anti-abortion shirts. What most people's problem is that these shirts tell the truth. The un-sugar coated truth, and people don't want to see that. It's time we all stepped up and called a spade, a spade!
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Posted Thursday, May 24, 2007 1:01 PM By Dan
I think the school was dead wrong and should have respected the free speech of all including ignorant bigots.
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Posted Monday, July 30, 2007 3:49 PM By stopindictrination
There is no other topic today which gets as much blind faith acceptance as homo&lesbian sexual activities do. What the school did is sexual harassment. Forcing pupils to listen to the message that H&L activities are OK is harassment. What if a school decided to force pupils to listen to the message that swinging is OK?
I'm not a religious person, but I side with the students who carried sign Sodomy is Sin because they did so in reaction to being forced to listen to the view that H&L activities are OK. My view as far as sex is that it's either missionary sex or no sex, but that's beside the point. Sexual orientation is a moot point. Even if orientation doesn't change, it's either straight sex or celibacy. Being against H&L behaviors is not bigotry, just as being against smoking is not bigotry.
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Posted Monday, July 30, 2007 7:45 PM By Observer
stopindictrination, you make a good point. If I forced a woman to listen to a lecture about my sexual preferences, I would probably end up in jail.
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Posted Tuesday, July 31, 2007 12:09 PM By stopindictrination
Thank you Observer. Before I start, let me say that I think that transexuality is worse than homosexuality & they must abolish sex change surgeries-an abomination worse than homo&lesbian activities. Michael Powell & Appaled rehash the same thing about genes. Honest discussions have neither censorship nor deceit. M. Powell, Apalled & Patricia Mendoza overlook that the students who carried the sign Sodomy is a Sin would not have done it if these pupils had not been sexually harassed by being forced to hear that H&L activities are OK. If you consider a behavior as bad, then you should not be forced to listen to the view that it's OK, esp. if opposing views aren't given. This topic ends up rehashing the same points, such as the gay gene. This will offend some, but there could be a rapist gene, but we do what we can to prevent rapist behavior even if rapists are born that way. Just because a behavior may have an inborn cause doesn't make it good. Changing the behaviors of H&L to either missionary sex or celibacy is the right thing to do, just as helping a tobacco user quit using tobacco, even if there's a smoker gene.
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Posted Thursday, December 11, 2008 12:40 AM By Lars
The depth of the ignorance of the bigot's in this forum know's no limits, now does it! Transsexuality has absolutely NOTHING TO DO with homosexuality! And since when did anyone's personal life behind closed doors become any of YOUR business! People like you are responsible for every teenage suicide who happens to be BORN GAY! The people of this country really are sick and tired of having YOUR religious AGENDA bullshit shoved down their throats!
Do the world a favor, go someplace and kill yourself because people like you have absolutely no business being on this earth!
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