Nor is that kind of behavior allowed at either of the two public school systems my daughters have been through.

I am so, so sorry Aerows. Awful

Between the small one and the one that only cared about football, I'm surprised that I got an education enough to compete at a Catholic school. I got there, and when I wasn't forced to deal with sexual harassment, I excelled.

If anyone was gonna get groped it was either me or her but neither of us (well she's only 15) experienced sexual harassment in school.

I wonder if the sexual repression of intensely religious cultures might play into your experience. Many cultures in the ME are notorious for the rank, public assault on women - both verbally and physically.

Ick.

and petite, so I was an easy target physically. I spoke out about the crap going on with the bus, and was pulled into the principle's office and threatened with suspension, because on of the guys was a football player.

The harassment only sort of stopped when my mother requested that they drop me off by the shop (parents own a car repair business). A mechanic in the shop, who was a wonderful person, walked up to the bus with a pipe in his hand and discussed the conditions of the bus with the bus driver, and how he would be displeased if I was harassed anymore. That's what it took. He didn't threaten, just greeted me as I came off the bus, and put a foot on the bus.

I was taught that public schools were the scourge of existence. That I was lucky to have private schooling that was paid for. And that no one would mistreat you at a private school.

Thanks for the hug, I needed one. I don't like to think about those days, but I really need to emphasize the danger of thinking you are safe in "private" schools, because many of them are anything BUT safe.

I guess she thought it was a moderate Christian school, but she soon found out otherwise. After several months of her children being indoctrinated (they denied evolution, mocked feminism, denied global warming and the social studies teacher had a David Barton view of history; he also called the Democratic Party the "Democrat Party".) The final straw was President Obama's back to school speech in Spetember 2009. The school ignored it and would not show it.

I was a tad brainwashed for about a year (I was 12, after all, and being born in December, had always been younger than my peers), until I realized that what they said was utter bullshit around age 14.

I asked about fossils and evolution. How is it that carbon dating showed that these fossils were millions of years old?

Their explanation? "Well, if God can create the Earth, then he can create fossils to go along with the Earth to test our faith of believing in him."

I still look with awe at such an astonishing piece of propaganda that can be thrown at you, seem to make sense and dismantle science by claiming "faith". I'm a scientist in many ways. That made no sense to me then, and makes no sense to me now.

in the locker room

on the bus. If you were reading a book, they would crowd around and do something to get your attention so that you could see their erections. It was sick. I quit doing homework on the bus because of it.

The bus driver did nothing.

Yeah telling people to "take it easy" is satanic. Right.

about how rock music is satanic and why. If I listed the artists that at that time were considered satanic by this school and this cassette tape "seminar holder", I couldn't post because it would exceed the character limit.

Suffice to say - Osmand Brothers - safe but with reservations!

That was their view point.

for a Black Sabbath concert on Easter Sunday....they sent a letter home to our parents....I was not allowed to go

and that includes public and private (but not parochial or religious schools). I am a married heterosexual man, but if there was ever any truth to the "so and so made me gay" fallacy, after reading what you went thru I think I'd "turn" lesbian too. Disgusting. But hey, since Jesus school seems to be more about indoctrination into the GOP/political/theocratic corporate plutocracy than learning to care for your neighbors these days why am I not surprised.

I am curious what part of the country this occurred in. I'm guessing not New England, the West Coast or upper midwest.

I quickly learned that studying on the bus lead to harassment. We had to cross the bridge so I was on the bus back and forth from this "Christian" school for 45 minutes both ways. Morning wasn't bad. Afternoon was awful. Can't read, can't sleep because you will wake up with someone trying to touch you, what do you do? It was like that.

It was terrible trying to do homework, and it was all white kids that didn't care about homework. I did, and trying to get good grades.

what passed for education there. Did you know we have different races because Noah's sons went in different directions when the ark landed?

I'm so glad you went to a better and safer school. I went to public school, but too was subjected to groping and being flashed. Wasn't any better in college.

And I am thankful every day that my parents saw how unhappy I was and sent me to Catholic school. I got a great education, even if some of them weren't exactly liberal, but they protected us. They made SURE we didn't get harassed to the point where we couldn't even do homework. It took me a year to work through the trauma and DO homework.

My Aunt was a lesbian, who married, had a son, left her husband, and raised my cousin with her partner back in the 50s. She was very open about it, and my parents were very matter of fact about her, and their gay neighbors. "Some people have black skin". "Some people have blue eyes". "Some people love people of their own gender". That is what I heard from my parents, who were catholics and sent me to catholic school. Actually, the schools were much more tolerant of gays back in those days. They were far more discriminatory towards WOMEN who didn't want to follow their get married ASAP and make lots of babies for god.

I went to an all girls catholic hs in NYC. Were there girls there who were lesbians? Sure, just the same as there were girls who got pregnant and dropped out of school. I did neither, not because of any bad influence, evil, or whatever. None of that was me and who I was. I guess even as a young teen I had a strong sense of self, and acknowledged that other people had the right to be who they were. In that respect, I credit my PARENTS and their very liberal (for then) and tolerant views. In so many ways, they thumbed their noses at the catholic church even back in the 50s and 60s. I am an only child by their choice. That alone says it all.

You are BORN gay because of your genes, not the influence of anybody else. I am straight "despite" my surroundings, yet because of my family genes, and my husband's, I have a lesbian daughter. One of my daughters is a brown eyed brunette. The other is a blue eyed blonde. The fact that one is straight and the other is gay is no different than their eye and hair coloring. It is just a mix of how the genes turned out.

I was just extolling the virtues of a place where I could get an education where it wasn't so bad that boys felt entitled to lay their junk on your Algebra book, and ask you to decide which of them was more worthy.

Thank you for your acceptance that I'm gay due to genes or something hormonal in the womb. I can't change it even if I wanted to do so.

What I am NOT doing is disparaging Catholic High Schools. That was the first place I found that I could exercise my mind without a bunch of crap. The crap happened at so-called "Christian" schools that found education to be secondary to indoctrination.

I argued with nuns about things, and do you know what? The nuns were the first to stick up for me because I was a serious student. I am not Catholic, but if I would choose a religion, it would be the one that the nuns exercised because it was true - not like the men that run the church. They see feeding the poor as a priority. They see healing the sick as a priority. Priests seem to see a priority in covering up for sexual abuse by priests, advancing causes that harm women like denying birth control, and authoritarian goals like suppressing any dissent for these policies in the Catholic Church.

I am indebted to Catholic nuns. I detest Catholic "priests" who call themselves the ones who speak for God and do the absolute opposite.

After all they were first and foremost FEMALE and had to put up with the BS of the church patriarchy. I was in school in the 60s. It was a time of great changes. The younger Nuns in particular were very cool and embraced those changes. Unfortunately, the male priests didn't. I too argued a lot with them, but I did get the support of the Nuns!

Well, that and the illustrations in health class. Very titilating line drawings, I assure you.

as a hobby, because I liked knowledge. I've done it all of my life since the first time I could read. I like knowing things in context and otherwise. 30 years later, I have the internet, and can research a topic with ease.

Then, though, I was intimidated by boys showing their genitals and threatening with them. When you can't even do homework without a boy dropping a dick on your book, something is wrong, but I was too young to know it.

wonderful education

guess conservative Christian schooling is a WHOLE DIFFERENT animal...

complete with playing "backmasking" music and Knights In Satan's Service! And the young-earth science classes! And the Bible classes every day!

Not only was I extremely shy and "the weird kid" but also the smart one. I'll leave it to your imagination what my school years were like. No one groped or molested me but the mental bullying was awful. I reached the conclusion that ministers, no matter how nice, produce horrid children.

The school I spent junior high in didn't tolerate anything sexual. There was ,generally, not a way to make the rules not apply to you. Kids of faculty did get suspended for making out. In eighth grade, the junior high principal (also the homeroom, Algebra and Bible teacher) interrupted lunch one time to tell us that he was serious about PDA. That one day some of us will find ourselves married, and disappointed with our spouses because fooling around with PDA leads to superficial relationships and heartbreak because you didn't really get to know a person for who they are. I guess because people don't mature past the eighth grade. Shortly after, he separated the boys and girls on the two buses meant for the junior high school, in order to avoid public displays of affection. That place was authoritarian.

The same man fashioned himself an occult expert. He had some extraordinary claims about occult powers and some people who were endowed with certain demonic abilities. He had alot to say about Satanism in Bible Class.

I remember one chapel speaker who recalled how his father proclaimed that God has abandoned America while he was watching the evening news, and he saw that the commando mission to rescue the hostages in Iran failed. He said his father died right there in front of the television.

I remember one Veteran's Day chapel, a man in an Air Force uniform told the student body that he thought it was a pity that some members of Congress believed in Evolution. He then segued into his main point that "Evolution is Un-American." I can't remember chapter and verse where he got that. He flipped through the Old Testament and found some scripture to proof-text that involved some rebellious Israelites and claimed Ancient Israel as a stand-in for America. I remember being confused by that, or why it was so profoundly important that congress people reject Evolution.


Of the two schools I attended, neither of them had a football team. Homecoming was oriented around the opening game of the basketball season - in January. I think my mother thought that enrolling in a school without a football team was a plus. Jock culture was weaker when the most athletically demanding sport is basketball.

I'm so sorry.

reading a bible story each day that you could pay attention to or not. After that nothing more religious at all the school was like any other with no religious indoctrination, no brainwashing. The classes were small no more than a couple dozen in each class and lots of one on one help from the teachers. I really loved it. I had been to public school but my parents took me out because of bullying by other students and teachers. I thrived in the private school I went to. I'm sorry about your experience, they're not all like that.

ahhh, another one.

sP

I attended public school all the way through IN DETROIT and never heard or seen anything like that all.

But the boys wouldn't have wanted to harass the girls anyway, they would have gotten their asses kicked.

Do not fuck with Detroit public school girls.