Mentors and role models for GLBT people in Venango County are sorely needed. This teacher is certainly not a bad woman but rather suffered from a lack of resources herself and made poor choices.
Venango County needs healthy resources for GLBT people - youth and adults!!!
We need counselors, support groups, and healthy social outlets.
The only resource available in Venango County is the extreme Christian Ex-gay fix.
The result of that approach is adults who have learned to hide their true emotions trying to fit into a role that is not true. Eventually, that often leads to poor relationship and life choices that are emotionally unhealthy.
The longer Venango County ignores, isolates and chastises GLBT people, the more we will experience emotionally disfunctional situations involving GLBT people. This is a symptom of a systemic problem here.
Where are the GLBT professionals in Venango County? There are many. They are running businesses, working at the hospital, working in many roles in local companies. They are here but they do not feel safe to congregate, to organize and to mentor.
And even more sad, the best and the brightest GLBT people left this area long ago knowing they could lead happier, healthier lives elsewhere.
So, Venango County - are we going to continue to drive good people away? Are we going to ignore the needs of a part of our community? Or are we going begin to build a safe and healthy community for ALL who live here?
8 comments:
Um, no, she'a a bad woman. It doesn't matter if she's a lesbian. She could have had sex with a boy, and she'd still be a bad woman.
You don't have sex with your students. No excuses.
ACTUALLY, whats worse here is your attempt to hijack this miscarriage of justice fr your own advancement. This doesnt have aything to do with lac of resources or anything else. In fact nobodys made any intimation that shes a lesbian. If you have to borrow other peoples miseries then you obviously arent in nearly as bad of a position as you portray yourself in.
It is important to remember that there are more than two sides to every story-and so far we have all only heard one publicly. Let's not jump to conclusions, folks.
As a member of the gay community here in Venango County, I cannot emphasize my absolute disagreement with your comments regarding the teacher. To suggest she merely wanted to be a role model is ridiculous and you really ought to rethink your position.
While I believe people are innocent until proven guilty, I don't need to repeatedly smack my face into a wall to realize that any authority figure (e.g. teacher) should know the type of relationship Ms. Fetty is alleged to have had with the student is anything but acceptable - or role model like.
I also take exception to your note that the best and brightest GLBT people left this area long ago. Please share the rubric you are using to define the best and brightest.
Whether one agrees or disagrees with the lifestyle - gay, straight, etc - of others... hopefully we can all be intelligent human beings and stand together against the type of behavior in the Fetty case. It doesn't matter if it was 2 women, 2men, or a man and woman... any of these situations - under these circumstances - is inappropriate
There is no disagreement that intimate relationships with students is wrong. Period. The details of this particular case are not yet known.
That's not the point of this posting. The point of this posting is that GLBT people are left alone to deal with these difficult issues which leads to a greater dysfunction.
Where are the resources for the GLBT community?
Where are GLBT mentoring solutions that are healthy?
Where is GLBT friendly counseling?
Yes, there are bright, talented GLBT people remaining in Venango County but are they working toward long term solutions to ease the way for GLBT youth? Are they working to create greater acceptance of GLBT involvement in the community at large? These are important issues and any dysfunctional same sex relationship is connected in some way to this greater problem.
are hugging, kissing, and sleeping "sex acts"??
*IF* SO, the age of sexual consent in PA is age 16, (or if a partner is <4 years older, it *seems* to be age 13):
http://ageofconsent.com/ageofconsent.htm
http://ageofconsent.com/pennsylvania.htm
http://law.onecle.com/pennsylvania
/crimes-and-offenses/00.031.001.000.html
http://law.onecle.com/pennsylvania
/crimes-and-offenses/00.031.021.000.html
in spite of this, overly zealous district attorneys often threaten defendents with vague "corruption of a minor" charges when nothing illegal has actually been done:
http://law.onecle.com/pennsylvania
/crimes-and-offenses/00.063.001.000.html
(the US Constitution's equal protection clause *should* also invalidate any laws, if they exist, that make behavior that is *legal* for non-teachers "criminal".)
note that hugging and kissing are *NOT* specifically prohibited here within the PA requirements for educators:
http://www.pacode.com/secure/data
/022/chapter235/chap235toc.html
(but hugging and kissing *are* prohibited for therapists.)
that said, *IF* there is *PROOF* (not *hearsay*!) that the teacher actually had a "sexual relationship", with a student (of *HERS* is implied, but unclear) then it is certainly reasonable for a school to have a policy that
forbids such fraternization (aka sexual harassment), or she could lose her PA professional educator license.
btw, some local officers *are* known for exaggeration, better known as "perjury", regarding defendants here. whatever happened to "innocent until proven guilty"?
(our "justice system" is neither just nor systematic.)
oh, and a pipe is now "drug paraphernalia"? sigh. i hate tobacco, but even my dad owned a pipe. of course, if a warrant was issued based upon fraudulent grounds, the pipe is not admissible.
seems to me, if the "victim" *still* isn't complaining, then everyone else should mind their own business and stop giving all these gossip-mongering websites traffic.
also, please don't "feed the trolls" (obvious idiots)!
Does anybody else around here
find it to be frightening that
Franklin police were spying on
a 16 year old school girl at an
Oil City bus stop for 2 weeks?
Isn't that a little out of their
jurisdiction? What kind of
Orwellian police state are we
living in now, anyway?
The best and the brightest did leave this area.
How can I say that?
Who is ANONYMOUS? Oh, well that would be ALL of you.
Unless you're willing to leave you name with a comment, then you have left the area in my opinion.
Diane Gramely at least puts her name behind her nonsense.
As for this teacher, the ANONYMOUS gossip in this town is poison.
People will say anything around here as long as your don't tell anyone who said it. Most of it is made up lies. And much of it causes incredible damage to our community.
Trying and judging people in the court of public opinion in Venango County is not only faulty, but it's deadly.
So, let the damn court decide. Pay attention to what happens. Then if you feel justice has not been served, for gawd's sake, have the courage to stand up, in public, and state your case, with your name attached.
The point of this story is that we condemn each other based on innuendo. And there are those in town more than happey to exploit this.
COME OUT OF THE DAMN CLOSETS PEOPLE. Be adults. Or shut the hell up.
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