Collateral damage: A young casualty of Prop 8

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfmoms/detail?&entry_id=32758

Robin McGehee was a dedicated parent at St. Helen's Catholic School in Fresno, Calif. Even before the Mississippi transplant enrolled her son, Sebastian, in the pre-K program last year, she volunteered at the school because it was right in her neighborhood. She helped St. Helen's secure their first email address and Web site and worked with students on public speaking since she teaches communications at the local College of the Sequoias.

When McGehee enrolled her son, she, of course, became even more dedicated and generous. She helped with lunch duty, in the classroom, at holiday-themed parties. For the school's annual dinner-auction fund-raiser, she purchased two tables ($250 each) for her guests and bought several items at the live and silent auctions. And she helped Sebastian win first place in the walk-a-thon. He raised $1,100, while the second-place student brought in $400.

"She was a highly involved parent who not only donated her own time, but money as well," says Tiffany Rodriguez, whose four children attended school with Sebastian.

When the president of the school's Parent-Teacher Organization (PTO), Letty Baldwin, decided to return to work and give up her post, she asked McGehee to become the new president. The principal, Dr. Toni Amodio, phoned McGehee and encouraged her to accept--and McGehee did in May 2008.

Good article, read it!

and removes her children from it.

I hope she asks for all the money she raised for the school back

""We were very upfront and never hid the fact that we were a two-dad, two-mom family," McGehee says. "We explained that we're a nontraditional family and we wanted to make sure the school was comfortable with that and that they would support us being involved with the school."

McGehee was open about her sexuality at school but she never advertised it. She wasn't wearing "No on Prop 8" buttons around school. Even before the election, she was active in the Fresno Gay-Straight Alliance Network and no one at the school ever objected."

part of human nature but it makes me angry. I don't understand why people want everyone to be the same. Embrace the differences! That's what makes us special.

a Catholic school. I know the parents did their research - I'm not blaming them. The worst thing they did was to think the school would be decent. I'm not nice enough to believe such things myself.