HATE SPEECH OUT OF ARKANSAS

From Max Brantley at the Arkansas Blog in the Arkansas Times:

A timely announcement from the U.S. Education Department yesterday. It says school districts that fail to protect gay students can lose federal dollars.

The letter said schools “must take prompt and effective steps reasonably calculated to end the harassment, eliminate any hostile environment and its effects, and prevent the harassment from recurring.”

I'd hope that the Midland, Ark. School District would conclude that "eliminating any hostile environment" would include an explanation/apology from School Board member Clint McCance, whose Facebook page wished death to gay kids and who vowed to run off any gay kids in "his vicinity." Also called for would be a rejection of such a view by other members of the School Board and an assurance from the school superintendent that such a hostile view isn't tolerated in the schools. I should add that if it develops that McCance's words and feelings are exactly as they seem to have been expressed, of course he should resign from the School Board.

Exactly! A school board member who would post such a hateful language must go, and the sooner, the better.

UPDATE: I reached McCance on his cell phone this morning. "I really can't comment right now," he said. He said he planned a meeting with a lawyer this morning and didn't want to say anything further until he'd had that meeting. He did comment that the matter had "been blown out of proportion." He said he'd received several hundred phone calls. Did he regret the comments on the Facebook page? "I can't comment on that right now." He promised an update after the meeting with a lawyer. "I have a family to consider," he said.

Too bad McCance didn't think of his family before posting such venom on his Facebook site. Before he writes or says anything further, he needs expert legal advice or the affair will be further "blown out of proportion". Hate speech is hate speech.

From WYNT:

"The Arkansas Department of Education strongly condemns remarks or attitudes of this kind and is dismayed to see that a school board official would post something of this insensitive nature on a public forum like Facebook," the department said.

Thanks to Arkansas Hillbilly for sending the link.