Iowa High School Invites Christian Rock Band to Teach Students About Bullying; Instead, Band Bullies Students
A public high school in Dunkerton, Iowa recently invited the Christian rock band Junkyard Prophet to address students at an assembly. Students were told the assembly was going to be about bullying and making good choices. The students were indeed given a powerful lesson about bullying at the assembly, though not the lesson they were expecting. Nor was it the type of lesson you would likely expect a public school to be teaching your children. As far as good choices go, certainly none were made with regard to this assembly.
For a number of years, I worked as the program coordinator of a violence prevention and intervention program at the YWCA of Cincinnati. As part of my job, I sometimes made presentations to students at local schools about bullying. I taught them that bullying was never Okay and that they could go to teachers or other school staff for help if they were bullied. I also trained school staff so they would know how to intervene if they witnessed bullying.
That’s not the kind of presentation Junkyard Prophet made to students in Dunkerton, however. They demonstrated what bullying is by bullying students. Gay students, in particular.
Students were told that homosexuality used to be considered a mental illness and band members suggested that it is indeed a mental illness, even though it is no longer included as such in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual used by mental health professionals to diagnose mental illnesses and is not considered to be a mental illness by the American Psychological Association, the American Psychiatric Association, the National Association of Social Workers or many other professional associations of mental health professionals. Students weren’t informed that all these experts say homosexuality is not a mental illness, though; they were only told that it is a form of “sexual deviance.”
Students were also told that homosexuality used to be against the law in many parts of the country, and it was suggested that it is unfortunate that’s no longer the case. Students report that they were also told that gay people all die by the age of 42, although according to band members, that wasn’t exactly what they said. Band members claim they told students that male homosexuals have an average lifespan of 42. However, numerous professional bodies, including the University of California and the International Journal of Epidemiology, have reported flaws in the research that came up with this statistic. Students were not given that information.
Witnesses report that students that objected to the group’s message or that attempted to walk out of the assembly faced insults and ridicule. While school staff witnessed what was going on, apparently none intervened.
So, what did students learn about bullying? It appears that they learned how to bully gay students and that adults find such bullying acceptable and will not intervene when they witness it.
It should be noted that the school later issued an apology to students, stated that the band would not be invited back, and said that the views expressed by band members conflict with the school’s views on tolerance. Still, the fact of the matter is, school officials invited the band to speak to students and school staff failed to intervene when the band began making disparaging statements against homosexuals. That sends the message that the school supports the band, not the students and not tolerance.
Sources:
Huffington Post. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/12/junkyard-prophet-anti-gay-iowa-high-school_n_1340228.html. “Junkyard Prophet” Shocks Iowa School with Anti-Gay Messages at Assembly.
WCF Courier. http://wcfcourier.com/news/local/aclu-others-issue-warning-about-junkyard-prophet-group/article_46b18c18-6ea3-11e1-afa8-001871e3ce6c.html. ACLU, Others Issue Warning about Junkyard Prophet Group.
American Psychological Association. http://www.apa.org/helpcenter/sexual-orientation.aspx. Sexual Orientation and Homosexuality.
American Psychiatric Association. http://healthyminds.org/More-Info-For/GayLesbianBisexuals.aspx. Sexual Orientation.
University of California. http://psychology.ucdavis.edu/rainbow/html/facts_cameron_obit.html. The Cameron Group’s “Gay Obituary” Study.
International Journal of Epidemiology. http://ije.oxfordjournals.org/content/30/6/1499.full. Gay Life Expectancy Revisited.
