Not all students agree with Diocesan stance on sexuality
Program from the Diocese of Winona workshop for teachers
While students celebrated having a day off Friday, November 12, something serious was happening at Cotter.
At the beginning of the school year, the student handbook included a link to a policy from the Diocese of Winona-Rochester regarding enforcing the church’s beliefs on gender and sexuality. The Diocese of Winona was holding a workshop on this issue for the Cotter staff while students had the day off.
The original link to the policy drew questions from many, and outrage from some, students and parents within the school and throughout Winona. The document stated that the schools would teach “the truth about the human person (anthropology) and human sexuality, as well as any ideology or cultural trend that denies this truth.” This article was found in the Cotter student handbook by some inquisitive students who would have been targeted by such policies if the policy were it to be strictly enforced.
The policy stated rules such as “a student may be ineligible for continued enrollment if the student’s expression of gender, gender identity, or sexuality causes confusion or disruption at the school or if it appears to mislead others, cause scandal, or have the potential for causing scandal.” Students would have been required to act as their gender assigned at birth, and when attending any school-sponsored events as couples, students would be required to bring a member of the opposite sex.
“Well when I saw it I was, like, super duper upset,” said one student who wishes to remain anonymous, “[because], like, at the time I was dating a fellow fella’, and the policy would seem directed at me. Also, it would make it possible to get me into trouble for just respecting my friends’ genders which is silly,” the student said.
These policies appeared homophobic and transphobic to many as the actions described as causing scandal are simply how some people live their life, as no one chooses their gender. The controversial policies would also require that students use their legal names in the classroom and at anything related to the school. Of course this would not be enforced in the way of nicknames or any other such way of addressing someone, only in the case of gender identity and identifying as anything other than male or female, man or woman.
Another student who chose to remain anonymous said, “When I heard about the school policy about transgender people that Cotter and the Diocese of Winona-Rochester had put into the handbook I was repulsed.” The student expanded on their statement saying “Being a closeted transgender person at Cotter has led me to believe that we do not have such an accepting community as we thought. My own friends have made fun of LGBT people right in front of me.”
Cotter has said that the policy was not meant to be included in the handbook and that they would release a public statement within two weeks of the receiving the feedback from students and parents. Since then, to my knowledge, there has been no official response.
On Friday, November 12, the teachers and administration met with three speakers scheduled by the Diocese regarding the policy and the philosophy behind it.
The mission statement from the meeting is the same as was stated on the original policy document, that the schools would teach the “truth about the human person.”
The three speakers involved in the meeting were Sister Mara Lester who works in psychotherapy, Dr. John Brehany, the executive vice president of the National Catholic Bioethics Center (the NCBC), and Mr. Tom Braun, the attorney of the Diocese of Winona-Rochester.
Over these past three months before the meeting, some Cotter students have shown themselves to tolerate intolerance, while some push back and try to protect those who are vulnerable within our community. Throughout the school year we have seen examples of students making homophobic remarks, from personal conversations and occasionally in the classroom. This failure to respect people shows a lack of informed discussion on the subject within the homes of students and, to an extent, within the classrooms.
Cotter should be a place of respect for all persons and, in my view, the policy as originally outlined by the Diocese might be forcing the school into a corner which would bring on more problems than it might solve.
