Educators' Honoree Challenged on Alleged Sex Abuse Cover-Up
by Jim Brown
August 10, 2004
(AgapePress) - The founder of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), who was recently honored by the largest teachers union in America, is defending himself against allegations of engaging in unethical and illegal behavior. But a researcher of ex-homosexual issues says Kevin Jenning's response to charges he covered up an incident of child sex abuse raises more questions than answers.
California teacher Diane Lenning recently criticized the National Education Association (NEA) for giving a human rights award to GLSEN founder Kevin Jennings this summer. Lenning says Jennings broke Massachusetts law in 1988 by not telling authorities about a high school sophomore's homosexual affair with an older adult male.
But in a letter to the Washington Times, Jennings accused Mrs. Lenning of both "misstating Massachusetts state law" and "grossly mischaracterizing a situation with a student who needed a teacher to talk to."
Dr. Warren Throckmorton is a conservative columnist and professor of college counseling at Grove City College. Like Lenning, Throckmorton questions whether Jennings -- given his apparent failure to report child sex abuse -- should have received the award from the NEA. He explains that Jennings was required by Massachusetts state law to report the illicit affair.
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Dr. Warren Throckmorton |
"The fact that he did not do that was confirmed by the Washington Times -- and in his letter, Mr. Jennings never disputes the fact that he did not make the report," Throckmorton says. "So I don't know how his involvement has been mischaracterized."In his book One Teacher in 10: Gay and Lesbian Educators Tell Their Stories, Jennings says he counseled the teen regarding his relationship. But Throckmorton says no teacher should "wink at" or overlook a sexual offense that has been committed.
"Whether the student was complicit in any level or not really is not the issue for a minor," the college professor explains. "If I'm a parent and I send my kids to school and they're being taken advantage of in some way and a teacher finds out about it, I certainly hope that the teacher would let the authorities and let me know about it."
Although Jennings does not deny failing to report child sex abuse in 1988, he acknowledges that if any teacher realizes a student is being physically, emotionally, or sexually abused, they are mandated by law to report that abuse to authorities.
As for the allegations leveled against him by Lenning, Jennings says they are politically motivated and an attempt to distract him from doing his work and undermine his personal reputation.
"As a teacher, it's incredibly painful to have someone call into question my commitment to ensuring the kids in my classroom were anything but safe every day. Mrs. Lenning did just that with her remarks about me," Jennings says, "and the remarks are both misleading and they're unfair. In fact, our attorney has concluded that some of Mrs. Lenning's remarks are potentially libelous."
GLSEN has written a letter to Lenning, demanding she retract her accusations or face a lawsuit.
'Fistgate' Connection
Throckmorton also believes Jennings should be held accountable for his involvement as keynote speaker at the highly publicized "Fistgate" workshop at Tufts University, in which young students were given graphic "how to" lessons on performing homosexual acts. But Jennings says people often wrongly claim the pornographic workshop for teens was conducted by GLSEN.
"I made it clear then, and I'll make it clear again now: we found the content presented in that workshop age-inappropriate and wrong," Jennings explains. "We worked to make sure that there would be no reoccurrence of such a workshop ever again at a GLSEN workshop."
According to Jennings, that workshop occurred more than four years ago -- and there has never been a similar incident since then.
