School takes 1st-graders to see lesbian teacher wed

'This is an overt indoctrination of children who are too young'


WorldNetDaily
Posted: October 11, 2008
7:30 pm Eastern

A public school in San Francisco bused 18 first-graders to City Hall yesterday, so the youngsters could scatter rose petals in celebration of their lesbian teacher's wedding.

The students, from Creative Arts Charter School, waited on the steps for their teacher with bags of pink rose petals, bottles of bubbles and, at least for some, with political buttons asking Californians to vote down Proposition 8, a ballot measure that seeks to define marriage in the state as a union between one man and one woman.

"She's a really nice teacher. She's the best," 6-year-old Chava Novogrodsky-Godt told the San Francisco Chronicle, wearing a "No on 8" button on her shirt. "I want her to have a good wedding."

As WND reported, supporters of California's Proposition 8 have claimed that combining legalized same-sex marriage with the state's mandate that schools "teach respect for marriage and committed relationships" would result in kindergartners being taught the virtues of homosexual marriage. Opponents have called such arguments fabrications and scare tactics.

Yesterday's field trip wasn't quite kindergartners, but it was close.

"It shows that not only can it happen, but it has already happened," said Chip White, press secretary for the Yes on 8 campaign.

"It's just utterly unreasonable that a public school field trip would be to a same-sex wedding," White told the Chronicle. "This is overt indoctrination of children who are too young to have an understanding of its purpose."

The school's interim director Liz Jaroflow, however, defended the field trip to a homosexual wedding as academically justifiable.

"It really is what we call a teachable moment," she told the Chronicle. "I think I'm well within the parameters."

Jaroflow also told the Chronicle that despite the potential objections of some the decision was not controversial for her, and that "it's certainly an issue I would be willing to put my job on the line for."

According to the Chronicle, the field trip was a surprise to the teacher, Erin Carder, and originally proposed by a parent.

"How many days in school are they going to remember?" asked parent Mark Lipsett. "This is a day they'll definitely remember."

Carder married Kerri McCoy on the office balcony of San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, who officiated the ceremony.

As the couple held hands on the balcony overlooking the City Hall's rotunda, Carder proclaimed, "With this ring I thee wed!" shouting the last word for emphasis.

The couple told the Chronicle that they have participated in campaigning against Proposition 8 and planned to travel around the city after the ceremony in a motorized trolley car with banners reading "Just Married" and "Vote No on 8."

Two families of children in the class chose not to give permission for the trip, their children remaining at the school with another first-grade class.