Classes To Be Safe Zones For Gays Portland Teachers Receive Training On Homosexuality

Soon, some classrooms at a Portland high school will have stickers denoting them as gay, lesbian and bisexual “safe” zones.

Lending homosexual students a sympathetic ear is an outgrowth of trial runs at two schools of a sensitivity training program for teachers.

Faculty at Grant High School and Lane Middle School have had sessions intended to increase their awareness of the needs of students shown by one study to be at greater-than-average risk to drop out, commit suicide and abuse drugs.

Grant special education teacher John Mears said the stickers on classroom doors would denote “safe” classrooms where teachers are willing to listen.

“We’re not set up to be counselors,” he said. “We just want (students) to know they have someone to talk to.

“Some of the staff were uncomfortable with dealing with the issue of homosexuality,” he said. “At least now if they’re approached with it and are uncomfortable they can refer to another teacher.”

Oregon Citizens Alliance head Lon Mabon said the teacher sensitivity training amounted to another step in what he calls the “homosexual political agenda.”

Mabon’s group has sponsored two unsuccessful anti-gay-rights initiatives, including one that would have directed teachers to tell students homosexual acts are “behaviors … to be discouraged and avoided.”

Several school board members have compared the program to efforts made to help other students with special needs, such as the gifted and those who speak little or no English.