Seattle Public Schools to End Affiliation with BSA

Chief Seattle Council and the Boy Scouts of America have refused to end their discriminatory membership and employment practices. They have instead opted to accept that Seattle Public School (SPS) must end its affiliation with BSA. See prior posts at:

• http://huhwot.blogspot.com/2014/05/open-letter-to-seattle-public-schools.html
• http://huhwot.blogspot.com/2014/06/seattle-public-schools-believes-it-does.html
• http://huhwot.blogspot.com/2014/06/seattle-public-school-continues.html).

Implementation details are expected to follow, and will be posted as they become available. It is expected the youth will experience little operational change to their outdoor program as curricula, insurance and other course materials are readily available from other sources. Chief Seattle Council was unavailable for comment.

Here is the letter received today:

Dorsey, Larry
To: Geoffrey McGrath
Cc: Sechrist, Calandra; Ruiz, Bernardo; Boy, Ronald D

Wed, Jul 9, 2014 at 4:02 PM

Mr. McGrath,

Thank you for working with Seattle Public Schools in your efforts to make our schools better.  Over the past few weeks we have conducted many meetings and have done a great deal of investigation regarding your concern.  As you can imagine, every course is structured with many layers from personnel to supplies so there are a number of issues that are being considered as we conduct this inquiry.  Further, as you may know, we are in a transitional period as our Superintendent has accepted a new position and we are in the process of hiring a new Superintendent for our District.

With that said, I would like to give you an update on the current status of this investigation and the next steps for the District.  At this point, we have concluded that we shall advise our Superintendent to end any affiliation with the Boy Scouts of America in relation to credit-earning courses.  We will continue to follow federal law and allow organizations to use our facilities after school hours pursuant to our facility use policy. We are currently working with our Risk Management and Curriculum and Instruction departments to determine the instructional material and insurance needs of an outdoor recreation credit-earning course.  We will keep you updated on the progress and thank you again for your cooperation in this matter.

Sincerely,


Larry Dorsey        
Ronald D. Boy
Assistant General Counsel
Seattle Public Schools
John Stanford Center for Educational Excellence
2445 3rd Avenue South
Seattle, WA 98124
(206) 252-0114

In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.
George Orwell

Your comments and concerns are welcome--add them to the comment section below. I'll do my best to research answers to specific questions and welcome other's research as well.

Seattle Public School Continues Investigation into Claims it is Breaking the Law

Seattle Public Schools has re-opened its investigation into whether the Garfield POST program violates the state law (see prior posts: http://huhwot.blogspot.com/2014/05/open-letter-to-seattle-public-schools.html, http://huhwot.blogspot.com/2014/06/seattle-public-schools-believes-it-does.html), seeking fourteen more days to collect evidence and attempt to redress the problems. Here are the details discussing why the investigation was re-opened. Recall that this program is funded at least in part through a grant by the United Way of King County--who to dated has refused to address the discrimination issue:

On Wed, Jun 18, 2014 at 7:45 AM, Dorsey, Larry wrote:
Dear Mr. McGrath,

Based on your most recent email I am going to ask you for additional time to investigate the POST program at Garfield High School.  I am not personally aware or involved in the things you have mentioned and would like to investigate this matter further to inquire if the program complies with District policy and law.  Please let me know if this is acceptable to you.

Sincerely,
Larry Dorsey

On Wed, Jun 18, 2014 at 10:30 AM McGrath, Geoffrey wrote:
Dear Mr. Dorsey,

I am certainly interested in SPS conducting a thorough review of the out-of-compliance and illegal inter-operation currently existing between SPS and BSA with or without it's LFL subsidiary. How much time are you requesting?

To help facilitate your investigation, you may prefer to contact Scott [redacted], Garfield POST advisor listed at the contact number on their public website: http://www.ghspost.org/contact: (206) 660-[redacted]

Be aware the SPS school advisor associated with the program is currently being voted on by the students--that decision has not yet been announced.

Scott can confirm to you that POST meets daily during school hours for class credit, inter-ops with BSA through their employee named [redacted] (District Executive of Thunderbird District of Chief Seattle Council, 206-902-[redacted]), is unaware of Learning For Life or the LFL acronym, makes use of BSA training materials, forms, and insurance, etc. I expect these facts can be fully investigated in fairly short order. Your further investigation might extend to the role of BSA/CSC/LFL in Franklin High School's outdoor program, to include finding if there is any during-school-day use of training materials, curricula or other schools in the district.

You should be able to ascertain these facts rather quickly, and then prepare a public statement regarding intention to rectify this shortly. That public statement is needed, how much time do you require?

Yours,
Geoffrey McGrath


On Wed, Jun 18, 2014 at 2:25 PM, Dorsey, Larry wrote:
Dear Mr. McGrath –

Thank you for bringing this information to my attention.  It does appear that a further review needs to be conducted.  I am requesting fourteen (14) working days which would bring us to the 9th of July.   You can expect a reply by then or sooner.

Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any further concerns.

Sincerely,
Larry Dorsey

On Wed, Jun 18, 2014 at 2:35 PM, Geoffrey McGrath wrote:
Dear Mr. Dorsey,
You are in the process of developing the facts that will be used to influence policy in the days and years to come, and preparing those facts to stand up to a rigorous challenge in this matter from either side of the issue, regardless of decision-making at your level, at the board level, or elsewhere, is needed. I appreciate the work you are doing and a fourteen-day extension beyond the normal time-frames established in policy and statute makes sense and is acceptable.

Sincerely,
Geoffrey McGrath

Seattle Public Schools Believes It Does Not Have to Comply with State Law Regarding Employment Discrimination

Several weeks ago I wrote to the Seattle Public Schools to understand why they were breaking the law in providing access to the BSA, well-known for it's employment practices discriminating against LGBT people.  This is their response:

Dear Mr. McGrath,

Received via e-mail 2:01 pm June 13/2014

Thank you for your inquiry regarding the use of Seattle Public School facilities by programs associated with the Boy Scouts of America and the Chief Seattle Council. We are aware of the concerns of discriminatory practices by programs associated with the Boy Scouts of America and appreciate your concern. As a school district, a large part of our funding for education comes from the federal government. Also, as I am sure you are aware, federal law trumps state and local laws. With that understanding, in 2002 the Boy Scouts of America Equal Access Act, Section 9525 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of A965, as amended by Section 901 of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 became Federal law. The law applies to public elementary and secondary schools, local educational agencies, and State educational agencies that receive Federal funds made available through the Department of Education. Under the Boy Scouts Act, which became effective on January 8, 2002, no such public school, LEA, or SEA that provides an opportunity for one or more outside youth or community groups to meet on school premises or in school facilities shall deny access or a fair opportunity to, or discriminate against, any group officially affiliated with the Boy Scouts of America, or any other group listed in Title 36 of the United States Code as a patriotic society, that wishes to meet at the school.

Seattle Public Schools must follow the law. Because we provide many youth and community groups the opportunity to use our District buildings, we must allow programs associated with the Boy Scouts as well. By denying the Boy Scouts, we would also be forced to deny all associations. In the end, this would prevent our students and families from accessing many very beneficial programs and would in the end harm our students.
Again, thank you for your concern and inquiry into our practices. I hope this information has answered your questions and I thank you for the work you do for our students.

Sincerely,

Larry Dorsey Civil Rights Compliance Officer

This reading of the law by SPS is flawed, in that it only applies to access to the physical plant before or after standard instructional hours (see http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/boyscouts.html). The details in the ECFR don't change that (http://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?c=ecfr&rgn=div5&view=text&node=34:1.2.1.1.6&idno=34), making the claims by SPS regarding their during-school-hours BSA and/or LFL programs fully problematic. Additional suspect areas include any non-rented associated equipment storage, as well as approved during-school extra-curricular activities associated with such programs.

BSA/LFL are involved in SPS schools during school hours. For starters, there is the Garfield High School POST program (http://www.ghspost.org). I could imagine a series of interrogatories that would establish certain facts:

1. When are meetings?
2. How many kids?
3. What adults are involved (SPS/BSA?)
4. Who is the BSA/LFL liaison (scouting professional)?
5. When are activities?
6. Where is equipment stored?
7. Who owns the equipment?
8. Is there a document for review?
9. What about employment discrimination?
10. Are kids registered with BSA?
11. If BSA forms are used...they were developed by discriminating org...
12. Produce a copy of the contract...

Federal law does not apply to LFL contracts nor BSA contracts with the districts, as they are for accessing curriculum-based program materials that is paid for by the school district. The same is true with Exploring, in as much as it is sponsored by the district/school. The district has chosen to sponsor an Exploring Post and pay BSA for LFL materials and program administration conducted by their paid professionals. Federal law does not require the school district to do so. The districts use of those materials as administered by paid BSA and/or LFL "executives," including Scoutreach, is a violation of state law for activities that have no protection in federal law. Again, NCLB has no bearing on LFL and/or Exploring, in these instances.  I cannot tell if this is simply misunderstood by the respondent, or if a hand-wave is being attempted in the response.

Federal law only applies to the situation where an Explorer Post that is organized by the community--not the school--wanted to use school facilities. Their response addresses that particular case--which is not what I asserted--I agree that under federal law, the district may have to treat them like any other community organization. If they do not charge a facility fee to such organizations, they cannot charge the Post, they also must charge the Post if they charge a facility fee to other community organizations.

In the case of the POST program at Garfield (for example), as long as there is no special access during school hours, nor any special accommodation that is not equally available to all comers at the same cost (such as storage of equipment, use of district vehicles, computers, etc.), then the district may rely on federal law, in-as-much as that law is constitutional (it isn't, but that would likely have to be proved).

Beyond the facts established by answers to these question there is this: Can Federal law provide special access to employment discriminators overriding the constitutionally provided equal protection of all citizens? Imagine the worst case where all employment (except perhaps governmental) were associated with private organizations such as the BSA--and all of those employers refused to employ LGBT people--without the means to secure a livelihood all such people would be unprotected in our society.

Naturally, this correspondence will be forwarded on to the appropriate parties for their consideration, and to prepare to work through the appeal to the Seattle Public School board.

Open Letter to Seattle Public Schools

[UPDATE 6/13/2014: Click for the response from SPS to this letter]

Dear Mr. José Banda, Superintendent of Seattle Public Schools
 

By way of introduction, I am Scoutmaster of Troop 98 operating out of the Rainier Beach United Methodist Church. This Troop is no longer affiliated with the Chief Seattle Council (CSC) nor the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) at their request, because of their policy of anti-gay discrimination (institutional homophobia).
 

BSA generally and CSC in particular is an employer that discriminates against LGBT in all its employment practices. As such it is in violation of city codes as well as policies within the district. Additionally it is in violation of equal employment codes of the state of Washington. These facts and obligations are well-documented and accessible in this document published by the OSPI:

http://www.k12.wa.us/SafetyCenter/BullyingHarassment/pubdocs/ProhibitingDiscriminationPublicSchools.pdf

The discrimination of BSA and CSC is well documented in the public record, and is referred to directly in these recent letters from our elected officials--I urge you to review them: 

• Washington Governor Jay Inslee http://bit.ly/1nBwH4p
• Seattle's Mayor and all nine City Councilmembers http://bit.ly/1laYqZm
• Rod Dembowski, King County Councilmember, District 1:  http://bit.ly/1ijF8co
• King County Executive Dow Constantine: http://bit.ly/1jIZnBy
• King County Councilman Dave Upthegrove  http://bit.ly/RquKKW
• 40 Washington State legislators http://bit.ly/1gF6oCJ
• Washington State Congressional Delegation http://bit.ly/P6B0W9

Seattle Public Schools (SPS) permits so-called "non-discriminating" programs of CSC called "Learning for Life" (LFL) (sometimes also called "Exploring") and “Scoutreach.” These programs just like all other programs of BSA discriminate against LGBT employment.

I would like to be clear on this point: LFL and Scoutreach program employees are operating under contract or other inter-operation with SPS. They are Chief Seattle Council employees. LFL is owned and operated by local BSA Councils. As they are Council/BSA employees, they are subject to BSA's membership and employment standards -- which means no LGBT BSA employees, in LFL or any other program. BSA and LFL are not separate entities, and as far as I know BSA is the only non-denominational youth organization that has such an explicit policy regarding LGBT employees.

Sir, it is critical for the Seattle Public Schools to become compliant under the law. Please let me know as soon as possible your plans to end further inter-operation between SPS and CSC.

Sincerely,

Geoffrey C. McGrath, MSW

geoffrey. mcgrath @ gmail.com

@geoffmcgrath

https://www.facebook.com/geoffrey.mcgrath.54


[UPDATE 6/13/2014: Click for the response from SPS to this letter]