PC B.S. is rampant. one quality sorely lacking in our country as a whole is MODERATION. when anything gets taken too far, it tends to hurt everyone. this is a classic case.
i understand that schools can't afford lawsuits, but i would hope that common sense in and out of the courthouse would prevail in cases like this. there is no guarantee in our nation's constitution OR ITS HISTORY that guarantees a freedom from having one's feelings hurt.
i agree with the points that you brought up, RDC, about what can be gained from exchanging cards/candy -- learning to write, create, share, give, etc. good for you for bringing this up at your school, and i hope you and the other parents prevail.
that said, and on a different matter:
==== rant (hopefully instructional, not meant to offend) mode on ====
e-chick wrote:
"They don't ban homosexuals from teaching and openly displaying their sexual preferences and behaviors..."
with all due respect, hon, that's not true in most places in the USA, and i don't know of any school district that will allow sexual behavior to be displayed by ANY teacher. gay, bi and lesbian teachers HAVE been and STILL ARE fired solely for their sexual orientation. and it's perfectly legal to do so.
i'm not talking about someone who is somehow "openly displaying" their prefs/behaviors -- these are folks who, like many homosexuals do, keep their private lives private. but it still happens today that if a teacher is somehow "found out" to be gay/bi/lesbian, that teacher can be quite legally fired on that basis alone.
my brother is gay. he's a trucker and a biker and looks like burt reynolds did about 20 years back. wears flannel shirts and jeans and basically doesn't fit the stereotype at all (but then gays who DON'T fit the stereotype are assumed to be straight most of the time -- they're essentially invisible).
anyway, he's had friends (people i know, too) -- men and women -- who have been fired from their jobs for being gay: a jr. high math teacher and a high school english teacher. i also have a friend, a lady who taught art in h.s. in an MA school, who was fired for the same reason: someone found out that they were gay and raised hell about it.
in just these 3 cases -- 2 women, 1 man -- all of them lead your basic, boring, significant other, cat or dog and a picket fence kind of lives. they didn't so much as have a photo of their SO up at work, nothing at all to indicate their orientation and relationship status. well, i take that back -- the woman i know had a plain silver ring that her gf of 10 years had given her on their anniversary.
sorry for the rant, but having a gay brother i've got to shoot down stereotypes and myths when i see them. i don't want my brother, friends or people like them to be a victim of false blanket statements.
==== end o' rant ====