Pro-homosexual indoctrination is about to sneak once more into West Virginia schools, and “gay” activists are bragging about how they worked closely with the state department of education to make it happen.

And they used the issue of “cyber-bullying” to revamp current policy, signaling that this strategy may be used in other states.

On March 10, as President Obama held a White House conference about the problems of student bullying, a bill was being finalized in the West Virginia legislature on cyberbullying. But unbeknownst to the parents in that state and even of most of the legislators, last minute amendments to H.B.3225 paved the way for a pro-homosexual re-write of the state’s anti-bullying regulations.

Audio coverage of committee and floor actions show coordinated amendments and a pattern of collusion to create the opportunity to designate categories for bullying incidents, including “sexual orientation” and “gender identity.” These were not specifically amended into H.B. 3225, yet state education officials interpreted the amended bill to give them the latitude to do so themselves.

WV Senate HB3225 3-8-2011  WV Senate HB3225 3-9-2011  WV Senate HB3225 3-10-11

The West Virginia Department of Education’s Office of Healthy Schools didn’t stop with adding the cyber-bullying provisions, but made sweeping revisions and introduced a revamped “Expected Behavior in Safe and Supportive Schools”, Policy 4373, including “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” without specific legislative authority and knowing this would be very controversial. The Department did seek input, not from conservative groups, but from the ACLU and Fairness West Virginia, a homosexual activist group that had, not coincidentally, announced in August a campaign to insert special rights for homosexual and gender compromised students into bullying regulations. Apparently, they were already working with the state education department to accomplish this goal.

State legislators passed an anti-bullying bill in 2001, H.B. 3023, that did not include these “enumerated categories” so desired by the homosexual lobby.  During that time, Kevin McCoy, president of West Virginia Family Foundation, pre-empted an earlier attempt by homosexual activist legislators for such provisions in H.B. 3023, preserving a generally –worded bill protecting all students.

The pertinent section of the new conduct code, approved on December 14, 2011 by a 9-0 vote of the West Virginia State Board of Education, reads:

“Acts of harassment, intimidation, or bullying that are reasonably perceived as being motivated by any actual or perceived differentiating characteristic, or by association with a person who has or is perceived to have one or more of these characteristics, shall be reported using the following list: race; color; religion; ancestry; national origin; gender; socioeconomic status; academic status; gender identity or expression; physical appearance; sexual orientation; mental/physical/developmental/ sensory disability; or other characteristic.” [Emphasis added]

It is likely that many parents and voters in West Virginia would have preferred less “gay” activist input into this behind-the-scenes process. The new policy reads like a “hate crimes” reporting law, not an anti-bullying measure. The directive for a “reporting requirement” in the new cyber-bullying law apparently triggered this regulatory overreach by state education officials.

According to Article XII of the West Virginia state constitution, the state board of education “shall perform such duties as may be prescribed by law.” And there is no law in West Virginia legalizing “sexual orientation” or “gender identity” as protected classes for adults or for schoolchildren.  Senate Bill 226 in early 2011 failed to pass, and the West Virginia House has also steadfastly refused to pass any such law. In fact, any so-called “non-discrimination” bill for homosexuals has failed numerous times to pass the WV legislature going back as far as 1993.

And specifically relating to school bullying policy established by H.B. 3023, which did not establish “class categories” in the former policy 4373, Student Code of Conduct, a letter dated January 23, 2002 from then- superintendent of schools, Dr. David Stewart, to Lew Tyree, Chair of the Human Rights Commission, in response to a request for clarification by Tyree, said this:

“Because of the broad definition of ‘bullying, harassment, or intimidation’ ….in West Virginia Code §18-2C-2, the motive behind the act is irrelevant and the policy would be applicable if a student is being bullied, harassed or intimidated because the student is gay, or perceived to be gay, and subsequently reports the conduct to which he or she is being subjected. The definition, as well as the proposed policy as a whole, focuses on the effect(s) of the action rather than the motive(s) for the action.” [Emphasis added]

Kevin McCoy was tracking the cyber-bullying bill passed in March and the hasty, under-the-table amendment process. Several legislators even after he alerted them, insisted there was nothing to worry about with this bill. Then he discovered the West Virginia Department of Education was moving ahead with a sweeping re-vamp of its Student Code of Conduct, surely thinking, ”Here they go again.”

McCoy has been monitoring the activities of leftists in the West Virginia government for years, especially regarding their tendency to experiment on schoolchildren. In 2002 , he blew the whistle on a middle/high school program called the Civil Rights Team Project, where students as young as 11 were trained to report “bias and hate speech” by peers, including remarks about homosexuality. The project was supported by materials from radical groups encouraging homosexual behavior. After a public outcry, the school mini-hate crime program ended.

Are “cyber-bullying” bills to be the latest ploy of homosexual activists trying to sneak pro-homosexual indoctrination into schools? Such bills are in play in many states, including Ohio, where a broad anti-bullying bill passed in 2006. Activists there have been trying ever since to amend it to include “sexual orientation” and ”gender identity,” even trying unsuccessfully to insert this language, rejected by the General Assembly, at the state school board level.

In Michigan, a general anti-bullying bill was held up for several years by the demands of homosexual activists, who insisted that “LGBT” students  would go unprotected without including the “enumerated categories” of sexual orientation and gender identity (untrue).  A general bill equally prohibiting bullying of all students “…without regard to its subject matter or motivating animus” was finally passed in November 2011, minus the special rights’ categories demanded by “gay” activists.

Why are these special categories so important to the homosexual lobby? These categories provide a turnkey for pro-homosexual propaganda programs in schools under the guise of “anti-bullying” training, and such lessons legitimize homosexuality and gender confusion as “rights” against which no voice should be raised. Meanwhile, objections to homosexual behavior are all uniformly cast as “hate” or “harassment” that may even cause student suicide.

This tightly-controlled political correctness is discriminatory toward families of faith. In addition, these deceptive messages are not backed by valid research but invalid online surveys from groups like GLSEN, the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network. Sadly, appropriate warnings are withheld from students who instead learn hazardous, inaccurate information positioning homosexuality as a risk-free and unchangeable identity.

At the roots of this West Virginia debacle is an activist attorney general and staff with a highly questionable track record going back to the Clinton administration. Under Clinton, the Department of Justice along with the federal Department of Education produced a publication called “Protecting Students from Harassment and Hate Crimes.” This outrageous and unauthorized overreach quoted radical ”gay” activist groups like GLSEN and PFLAG, Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays. When the Bush administration reviewed the document, it was appropriately shelved.

One of the contributors to this guide was Paul Sheridan, West Virginia’s Deputy Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division. Sheridan was also the architect of the discriminatory “Civil Rights Team Project” in West Virginia schools. Sheridan gave a presentation on November 19, 2011 at a Fairness West Virginia conference along with many other “gay” activists. West Virginia Attorney General Darrell McGraw, under whose leadership the “Civil Rights Team Project” was given a green light, is married to the new state superintendent of schools Jorea Marple, under whose direction the questionable new Student Code of Conduct was produced.

It seems key posts in West Virginia government are filled with closely-networked activists pushing homosexuality.

The new policy is unneeded to prevent bullying but if it stands, it will greatly further the homosexual agenda directed at youth in West Virginia.

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Linda Harvey is an author, speaker and radio personality. She is president of Mission America and hosts a radio show on WRFD in Columbus, OH, a Salem Network affiliate.

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Urge your state legislators to support your right as a parent to send your children and grandchildren to schools free from homosexual indoctrination!

Last year during the 2011 1st Session of 80th WV Legislature, a legislative bill passed late in the session requiring bulling reporting requirements, then the Department of Education took liberties by using it as a launching pad for homosexual activism.

New state superintendent of schools, Jorea Marple, wife of WV Attorney General Darrell McGraw, made sweeping revisions and introduced a revamped “Expected Behavior in Safe and Supportive Schools”  Policy 4373, which included “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” without specific legislative authority to do so.

The revamped “Expected Behavior in Safe and Supportive Schools”, Policy 4373 is a “hate crimes” reporting policy designed to identify “motive” and politicize public schools in political correctness to accept the homosexual agenda, rather than curb school bullying.

The West Virginia Family Foundation has worked with legislator’s in this session to introduce S.B.-558 and reverse this travesty in the following ways:

• Remove the two amendments offered by Senator D. Richard Browning (D – Wyoming) and Senator Robert H. Plymale (D – Wayne), returning H.B. 3225 to its original stated intent to prohibit internet bullying of ALL students for any reason without identifying “class categories”.

• Ensure accountability from both Senator Plymale and Senator Browning on the intent of their amendments, specifically, whether or not Jorea Marple was correct to interpret their amendments to allow her to add ”sexual orientation” and “gender identity” to the new bully policy. Currently there is no state law recognizing the behavior of homosexuality.

Take Action Now!

SB-558 must pass out of both Senate Education and Senate Judiciary Committee by February 26th, to ensure three full days for readings, unless rules are suspended as was done in the senate on March 10, 2011 to pass H,B, 3225 with the senators amendments.

Click here  to call or email Senate Education Chairman Robert C. Plymale (D-Wayne), Senate Judiciary Chairman Corey Palumbo (D – Kanawha) Senate Majority Whip, D. Richard Browning, Senate Majority Leader John R. Unger (D – Berkeley) and House Education Chair Mary M. Poling (D – Barbour).

Tell these legislators you expect the same procedures and  tactics used to advance H.B. 3225 on the last night of the session to be used to advance SB-558 in order to meet the crossover deadline to the House. Ask these legislators if Jorea Marple was wrong to use their amendments to promote the homosexual agenda in public schools and if so, what they plan to do about it!

Click here to call or email your senators and delegates expressing your strong support for SB-558 and request they support this bill in the House of Delegates, as well.

Click here to call or email State Superintendent of Schools Jorea Marple and demand answers from her as to why she and her department shamelessly worked with homosexual advocacy group, Fairness of West Virginia and the ACLU to force homosexuality on your children!  Tell Jorea Marple you expect immediate removal of “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” (cross dressing) from the new bully policy which exposes your children and grandchildren to homosexual behavior under the guise of bully prevention!

Click here to call or write to Attorney General Darrell McGraw and request he take immediate action to stop his employees from using the Office of Attorney General to collaborate with homosexual advocacy organizations to promote the acceptance of homosexuality in our state.

The West Virginia Family Foundation advocates and defends policies to advance religious freedom, the sanctity of human life and traditional family values.