On May 18, at Roanoke County School Board meeting Mr. Damon Gettier, whose son attends Glen Cove Elementary School, spoke up candidly. He complained about the teachers and staff of the school who are teaching / normalizing LGBT lifestyles to children.
Is it the matter of First Amendment and free speech? Or it is indoctrination of children in schools? However you may see it, concern regarding such an issue has driven me to write this article as I am obliged to break the silence.
As everyone knows schools are places of teaching for languages, math, science, and history. To continue keeping the values of schools they must not be converted to places of teaching ideologies for the purpose of indoctrination or pushing a certain sexual orientation, such as LGBT to be accepted by students. In addition, to prevent tensions and conflicts, logos and flags that represent any organization or symbolize any sexual lifestyle must completely be prohibited from schools.
Schools systems, including teachers, are not hired to persuade / decide what lifestyle or belief the children should embrace. This is a very sensitive matter and only parents have that right. Therefore, teachers are responsible to know their rights and limits in teaching children. It is necessary to distinguish between parents and teachers’ roles to keep from creating environments that cause uncomfortable situations for parents. Schools and children are to be protected from all ideological conflicts or sexualized education.
Mr. Gattier’s concern at the Roanoke Country School board meeting is the same one that other parents haven across Virginia. Obviously, he had to stand up against what he believed was wrong to be taughty by the school teachers, to elementary schools children.
By teaching and literally preaching a subject they advocate, the teachers must understand that not every family accepts the LGBT, and indeed, the vast majority of families are refusing such a lifestyle. It is not the matter of a hate or intolerance to condemn such a teaching in schools but it is a matter of faith and ideological beliefs that people practice, which reject the LGBT lifestyle.
However, teachers, school administrators, Department of Education, and the government should not become weapons to be used against the traditional families. Choosing LGBT is totally a personal decision and those who chose this path should not become spikes for the rest of us.
At the Roanoke County School Board meeting Mr. Gattier expressed his concern and said his son and another student told him, “ how a staff person had told them that a boy could be a girl and a girl could be a boy and that they could decide.” He obviously spoke for many parents who resent such a teaching and condemn involving children as sexualized subjects.
Clearly, displaying materials related to LGBT and teaching such subjects to elementary schools children is nothing but indoctrination.
It must stop.
– Serwan Zangana supported Operation Iraqi Freedom as a U.S Army translator before coming to the U.S from Kurdistan, Iraq in 1997 to seek political asylum. He was granted asylum status and years later proudly became a U.S citizen. He currently serves as a correction officer in Roanoke.