Reaction hateful and hurtful

To the editor:

Last week we saw what hate can do to a class of high school art students. This is why I consider this “controversy” so important.

It really isn’t a controversy in any case. It really isn’t about art at all. It is about the reaction to one lone individual’s hate, a knee-jerk reaction to the tyranny of the individual and an attack on young people, especially the ones who are a little different.

Art controversy is nothing new to the Mat-Su Borough School District. But this case is not at all like the ridiculous situation that occurred at Wasilla High School last year. Aside from the abhorrent attack on the one student, in general, it was a censorship of public art and actually, though silly, it was a controversy.

This year’s censorship of the International Baccalaureate Art Show at Palmer High School was, and is, serious business. It concerns student art and expression. It concerns the very purpose of Palmer High School International Baccalaureate art. In fact, it compromises everything it means to be a student artist. And it was a direct attack on the young people.

Also, it was a distorted attack on the different kids, especially those who have a different sexual orientation and those who question their own sexuality. Again, by one lone aggressive and psychologically violent person.

I was always a little different as a kid. I know the pain.

But rather than censor or at least investigate the individual making the false claims, the administration censored the young artists. Then, in a post-facto hearing found the kids guilty of being in the wrong place. The administration even had the gall, reminiscent of the trials of Galileo, to claim it really agreed with the students. Furthermore, the administration claimed the students agreed their punishment was deserved!

It was just about location, after all, and after hours access to the building when it wasn’t in the control of the administration. Really?

A society should always listen to an individual’s opinion, especially hate. But a society should never pander to the individual, no matter his or her social standing, or especially accept hate as a reason for action. We must never accept hate for any reason.

It is this acceptance of hate before consideration and the reaction, and then even more so, justifying the reaction by reasoning the hate that is so very wrong. This is so hurtful to the kids who worked so hard, and to our community and the caring people and parents who make it up.

Gregory Gusse

Palmer