Daily Mail Editorial
Next month the Kanawha County Board of Education will consider requiring diversity training for teachers that will encourage tolerance of homosexuality and other sexual orientations.
The upcoming vote has upset some members of the community and has drawn hundreds of comments from the public.
Discrimination is wrong, and teachers, of all people, should know this before they even step into the classroom.
To be sure, some students, particularly boys, do discriminate against openly homosexual students or students whom they think appear to be homosexual.
Teachers, administrators and other employees are already making it abundantly clear that such bullying is unacceptable.
For that matter, all bullying, for whatever reason, is unacceptable.
Or, as one parent put it in a comment to the board: "Students bullying homosexual students should be punished just as any other student that bullies any other student."
The comments suggest that some parents fear that children will be indoctrinated into accepting beliefs their parents do not share. Many religions consider homosexuality to be a sin, which is their right, but it would have to be a mighty peculiar religion that condones harassment or bullying of homosexuals.
The board requires its employees to take eight training sessions each year. Diversity training is one of them. For a couple of decades now, it's been the trendy thing to do.
One wonders if the real beneficiaries of such training are the trainers who draw a paycheck for telling people what they already know.
Putting teachers through these exercises year after year seems a needless expense.