Seriously, is this not enough...

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Originally Posted by Yonivore

You can google it as easily as I can. I've found a couple of articles from 2001 where Abels and others, involved in the incident, say the materials had been used for years by the Mass. DOE, that her supervisors were aware and that Jennings worked with the DOE in developing the materials.




Here's a quote from another MASS DOE employee, contemporaneous to the incident:


Look, I'm not going to spend my weekend building a legal case against Jennings. You either think he was okay with what was happening or you don't. Frankly, it's not worth my time arguing with you.

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Again, your quotes say the same thing - that Abels' immediate supervisors at the Department of Education knew what she was doing. Jennings was at GLSEN, not at the Department of Education.

Furthermore, you have not provided anything that demonstrates in any way that Jennings knew about and was okay with what employees from the Department of Education did during a conference sponsored by his organization. In fact, the only evidence we have of his feelings on the matter, namely the quote I provided earlier, indicates that he was not okay with what the state employees did.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jennings quoted in the Boston Herald

"We need to make our expectations and guidelines to outside facilitators much more clear," said Jennings. "Because we are surprised and troubled by some of the accounts we've heard."

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Does this sound like he knew about and was okay with what went on?

Also, in your post you represent the following -

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Yonivore

Margot Abels, who got fired by GLSEN after the content of the seminars became known, says Jennings and others at GLSEN knew the content of their curriculum and approved it.

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And yet, in the quote you provided, Abels doesn't mention Jennings or GLSEN in any form or fashion.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Abels

“We always knew that we were working in an area that in certain places was considered really controversial and we also knew that we were doing cutting edge work and that there are plenty of people that don’t support doing work with gay kids. But I think that we flew sort of below the radar screen for a long time and were able to, and had the complete support of our agency. Maybe David Driscoll [Commissioner of Education] didn’t always know everything that we did, but certainly our supervisors did,” said Abels.

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Isn't your post somewhat misleading then?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Yonivore

Look, I'm not going to spend my weekend building a legal case against Jennings.

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This thread you started is you trying to make a case against Jennings. What you're saying with this last statement is that you're not going to bother backing up your argument with anything more that allegations and innuendo.

Look Peabody, he lost me when he claimed Hay was an inspiration. If you want to stand by this guy, fine. I think he should be fired...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Yonivore

Look Peabody, he lost me when he claimed Hay was an inspiration. If you want to stand by this guy, fine. I think he should be fired...

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Look, I agree that Jennings saying that he admired Hay for starting the first gay rights organization is a questionable comment in light of Hay's later activities.

As far as standing by the guy, I have nothing invested in him. I just think that much of the fear-mongering with regard to Jennings stems from the fact that he's gay and outspoken on gay rights. And, that's not enough of a reason to keep him from serving in the position he currently occupies.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Yonivore

He once looked the other way, as a high school counselor, when a minor child reported a sexual relationship with an adult.

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http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/10/...nings.student/

A former student of an Obama Administration official is coming to his defense, as critics seek to use a 20-year-old incident to call for the official's resignation.

Kevin Jennings, who heads the Department of Education's Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools, is under fire for counseling advice he gave a teenage gay student more than two decades ago.

Conservative groups charge that Jennings, who is openly gay, condoned statutory rape and child molestation. That's in reference to an incident in 1988 when Jennings, who was a teacher at the time, did not tell authorities that a 16-year-old student revealed to Jennings that he'd had sex with an older man.

Now that former student is speaking out for the first time and telling CNN he did not have sex with that man at all. He did not elaborate on what he told Jennings at the time. Jennings could not be reached for comment late Friday.

In a statement obtained by CNN, the former student, who wanted to be called Brewster, wrote: "Since I was of legal consent at the time, the 15-minute conversation I had with Mr. Jennings 21 years ago is of nobody's concern but his and mine. However, since the Republican noise machine is so concerned about my 'well-being' and that of America's students, they'll be relieved to know that I was not 'inducted' into homosexuality, assaulted, raped, or sold into sexual slavery."

The former student recounted what happened at the time and maintained there was no sexual contact.

"In 1988, I had taken a bus home for the weekend, and on the return trip met someone who was also gay. The next day, I had a conversation with Mr. Jennings about it. I had no sexual contact with anybody at the time, though I was entirely legally free to do so. I was a 16-year-old going through something most of us have experienced: adolescence."
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"Brewster" also lashed out at the critics who have used the incident to attack Jennings.

"I find it regrettable that the people who have the compassion and integrity to protect our nation's students are themselves in need of protection from homophobic smear attacks. Were it not for Mr. Jennings' courage and concern for my well-being at that time in my life, I doubt I'd be the proud gay man that I am today."

Critics contend that Brewster was 15 at the time of the incident. But CNN has obtained a copy of Brewster's driver's license which verifies he was 16 at the time. The legal age of consent for sexual activities in Massachusetts is 16.

Jennings, who has published several books, has written and spoken about the incident. In one book he writes that when he was a 24-year-old teacher, a gay student confided that he'd had sex with an older man. Jennings didn't report the incident to authorities. Instead he writes, "I listened, sympathized, and offered advice." He has subsequently said he told the student "I hope you used a condom."

Jennings has admitted he could have done a better job dealing with the incident. Education Secretary Arne Duncan and the White House are both standing behind Jennings.

But conservatives have been emboldened since their attacks on environmental advisor Van Jones and National Endowment for the Arts spokesman Yosi Sargent forced their resignations, and the knives are drawn for Jennings.

Led by conservative commentators, Jones was attacked for once calling Republicans "assholes" and signing a "9/11 Truth" petition that suggested the Bush administration knew about the September 11 terror attacks in advance. Jones was also a co-founder of a group that has led a drive to convince advertisers to abandon Fox News' Glenn Beck after Beck said on the air that President Obama was a "racist" with "a deep hatred of white people."

Sargent came under fire for his participation in a conference call during which the NEA encouraged artists to participate in a project, led by first lady Michelle Obama, about national service. Conservatives, again led by Beck, accused the agency of attempting to create Nazi-style propaganda. Sargent stepped down from his position as director of communications, but the NEA said he remained with the agency in another capacity.

In a statement released earlier this week by the Department of Education, Jennings said, "Twenty-one years later, I can see how I should have handled the situation differently. I should have asked for more information and consulted medical or legal authorities. Teachers back then had little training and guidance about this kind of thing. All teachers should have a basic level of preparedness."

Despite the revelation that "Brewster" was of age at the time, Tony Perkins, head of the conservative organization Family Research Council, called for Jennings' resignation and said, "You do not need special training to know child molestation is wrong."

But Jennings has some determined supporters. Gerald Tirozzi, head of the National Association of Secondary School Principles, recommended Jennings for the job.

"I've been working with Kevin for over seven or eight years now and his agenda is not only about gay kids," he said. "It's been all kids."

Tirozzi said that Jennings' expertise in bullying has earned him recognition from school principals in conservative as well as progressive districts

So how many times has Yoni lied in this thread?

I count at least four.

I don't want him anywhere near kids.

If he'd not try to save his lie every time, he'd lie a lot less. It's like the Mormons say.

If you tell a lie, you have to cover it with another lie.