Concerned Women for America - Voters in Grossmont School District Throw Pro-'Gay' Crooks Out of Office

Search for on

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Home

Click here

Voters in Grossmont School District Throw Pro-'Gay' Crooks Out of Office 11/14/2002
Defeated GLSEN-backed trustee had pushed homosexual school agenda
By Allyson Smith

Pro-family majority in, pro-homosexual activist out.

In an election that focused heavily on the issue of homosexuality in schools, a Christian pro-family majority swept into office in the second-largest school district in California, ousting a trustee who pushed through pro-"gay" policies.

Losing in the election for the Grossmont Union High School District board was Ted Crooks, who with two other trustees outraged family advocates by winning passage of a pro-homosexual measure that expanded the district's non-discrimination and harassment policies to include "sexual orientation, whether actual or perceived." Three years ago, voters tried but failed to recall Crooks.

The victors on November 5 were Gary Cass, Jim Kelly and Evelyn Wills, all Republicans, who campaigned as a team on issues of parental rights, strong academics and moral standards for students, and taxpayer accountability. Cass, who pastors West Hills Christian Fellowship in El Cajon, has argued that all students can be protected without passing special codes based on divisive sexual and gender criteria. The three join incumbent Priscilla Schreiber (R) to form a 4-1 pro-family board majority.

Homosexual activists, including members of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), have targeted the board and Grossmont schools for action. At its last annual conference held last month, GLSEN held a special workshop dealing with one homosexual-related controversy in Grossmont schools. (CWA and over a dozen other pro-family groups have called on GLSEN to make public a record of all such conference proceedings, so parents across the country can easily become informed about the organization's plans for schools.)

Summing up the victory in a press release, Randy Thomasson of the Campaign for California Families said, "This was a multi-year battle where pro-family citizens endured and grew to the point of winning the prize, and the children will benefit immensely."

Grossmont's 'tolerance' controversies
For several years, the Grossmont Union High School board has been an ideological and political battleground between trustees with differing worldviews.

Shortly after his election, in Spring 1999, Crooks angered district parents by supporting Camp Minitown, a controversial off-campus "tolerance" workshop for students conducted by the National Conference for Community and Justice. Conversations at the "tolerance" camp were to be kept confidential from parents, which many saw as a violation of parental rights. Then Crooks and two board allies got in more hot water by backing a homosexuality-inclusive school non-discrimination and harassment code.

In a series of contentious board meetings, hundreds of parents, pastors and other citizens pleaded with Crooks and his fellow liberal board members not to implement the homosexuality ("sexual orientation") language, arguing that state law already provided sufficient protections, that the district already possessed a comprehensive anti-discrimination policy, and that there were no recorded incidents of harassment in the district based on sexual orientation. The liberal majority voted the language in anyway, sparking a fresh schism on the board and a recall drive against Crooks, who at that time served as board president.

The recall effort was headed by Schreiber and garnered over 19,000 signatures, short of the 22,568 needed to oust Crooks. The following year, Schreiber ran for the board and beat one of the liberal incumbents who had voted for the policy change, Michael Harrelson.

Grossmont's reputation declined further when, in March 2001, shootings occurred at two Grossmont high schools, Santana and Granite Hills, making the district the only one in the country to have had multiple shooting incidents.

From the time of the failed Crooks recall until last week's decisive victory, ideological clashes continued on the Grossmont board about sexuality issues and the need to pass a taxpayer bond to fix the schools, most of which are decades old and dilapidated.

'No Sexuality Promotion' policy
One battle early this year involved a challenge to a district policy — unanimously agreed upon by all board members — not to promote any kind of sexual lifestyle to students. In keeping with the policy, the board requested that a portion of an Anti-Defamation League tolerance film that showed a San Francisco policeman admitting his homosexuality on camera be omitted when it was shown during an assembly at Granite Hills High School. Although the ADL agreed to remove that section of the film, afterward a 17-year-old senior seized the opportunity to "come out" as a lesbian to the freshman and sophomore classes — without notifying parents in advance.

The decision to cut out the "gay" policeman's comments also aroused the ire of San Diego's adult homosexual activists, who subsequently held a meeting in April at the local "gay and lesbian" center to discuss strategies for punishing the district, including legal sanctions. Trustee Crooks attended that meeting, where he told the assembled activists to keep coming to Grossmont board meetings and lobby for their issues.

The ADL film incident later became the topic of the GLSEN seminar, which focused on how to confront school "censorship."

In June, in preparation for his run for re-election, Crooks received the endorsement of the San Diego Democratic Club (SDDC), the homosexual arm of the San Diego County Democratic Party. In September, he was a guest at an SDDC-sponsored awards dinner in September, which included students from one of the Grossmont schools he governed. In October, the SDDC held a fundraiser for his campaign that also encouraged young people's participation. Crooks was also endorsed by a board member of the San Diego chapter of GLSEN.

How they won
Cass, Kelly and Wills attribute their victory to God and grassroots citizens' efforts. During a post-election celebration on November 10, Wills called their win a "miracle" and said it was due to the prayers of hundreds of people around the globe. The win is even more significant in light of the superior financial and "mainstream" media backing of their opponents (which is worth thousands of dollars to a candidate).

According to the San Diego Union-Tribune on November 11, "The Crooks-led slate amassed more than $60,000 to spend in the election, compared with the Cass slate, which raised about $33,000, according to the latest campaign finance reports."

The Union-Tribune also did its best to discredit Cass, Schreiber and Kelly by painting them as "extremists" and Crooks as a "moderate." As the election drew near, the newspaper published a series of editorials that called Cass "pig-headed," criticized Kelly for refusing to accept federal funds with strings attached during his term on the county education board, and dismissed citizens' concerns about homosexual indoctrination and social engineering as "red herrings." At the same time, the paper edited out portions of editorial letters that exposed Crooks' connections to homosexual activists.

Despite this, the conservative candidates were helped by strong Republican endorsements, including U.S. Representative Duncan Hunter, and dozens of committed Christians who worked hard to get the truth out in local newspapers and on radio talk shows.

"It was a combination of being right on the social and fiscal issues, and building a winning coalition of people who were concerned about those issues," Cass told C&F Report. "We built a formidable coalition of elected officials and citizens by meeting together and helping one another. The heart and soul of the campaign were the parents and citizens who were so abused by Crooks in 1999."

Added Kelly, "There is no doubt we have been sent a mandate."