File photo of Karen, John, and Cub Scout Jack McDaid at scouting event where they were told "We don't have to be tolerant."

According to the posted agenda for next Tuesday night's meeting, the Portsmouth School Committee will hear the concerns of parents about an 8th-grade field trip to participate in the Narragansett Boy Scout COPE (Challenging Outdoor Personal Experience) program.

Full disclosure: We're the parents.

At the previous school committee meeting on October 8 (just after the permission slips went home) this reporter made the following statement during the public comment time:

I'm speaking tonight solely as a parent and not on behalf of any organization.

I'm here to ask the school committee and the administration to consider the policy on field trips involving organizations which practice religious and gender discrimination.

On October 28, the Middle School plans to take 7th and 8th graders to an outward-bound-style training session, called COPE, run by the Narragansett Boy Scouts of America. The funding for student participation is being covered by a grant -- about which BSA has refused, despite repeated requests, to disclose any details. [Ed. Note: Narragansett BSA Program Director Mike Brown did respond, and identified the Prince Charitable Trust as the source.]

BSA has a policy of denying membership to gay and atheist scouts and leaders. A recent policy change will allow gay scouts, but the exclusion for leaders and the nonreligious remains.

Our students have the right to learn in an environment free from bias, including field trips. I respectfully request the committee and administration take three steps.

First, publicly identify the source of the grant money funding this trip. Parents deserve to know who is paying the bill. Since this amounts to an in-kind donation exceeding $2,000, I'm invoking district policy 3269 which says "the Superintendent *will* consider the advisability of accepting" such donations.

Second, revisit policy 5210 on field trips, which delegates decisions to building principals and only requires that trips "positively contribute to the academic curriculum." The policy subcommittee should add guardrails to trigger review by central administration on questions of suitability and craft language excluding organizations with discriminatory policies.

Third, make this a teachable moment. We all recognize BSA has made progress, but there is still much to be done. If the district continues working with the BSA, it should commit to engage constructively. Institutions are most likely to act when feedback from partners and customers creates a felt need for change. The district, which must be committed to core values of religious diversity and gender tolerance, has an opportunity to demonstrate these values by speaking up.

I thank the committee for your time and your consideration. I know the committee cannot comment tonight, but ask this be added to the next meeting agenda.

Right up front, I must apologize to Mike Brown. Although he did not respond immediately (and cc'd what appeared to be their public relations firm) he actually did reply on Monday, Oct 7, but his response was caught in my spam filter. We clarified this on Oct. 10.

Also, I want to stress that I respect BSA's rights as a private organization. The Boy Scouts have the right to determine their membership, and they have aggressively defended that right, earning a victory in June, 2000 in the Supreme Court decision Boy Scouts of America et al v. Dale, which held, "Government actions that unconstitutionally burden that right may take many forms, one of which is intrusion into a groups internal affairs by forcing it to accept a member it does not desire."

But here's how that decision played out in personal terms for some families in Portsmouth. Our son, Jack, wanted to try Scouting, so we signed him up for Cub Scouts a few years ago. At the first large-scale event, held with children and parents at one of the campgrounds, while the kids were off at an activity, a scout leader explained this principle to the parents in no uncertain terms. "We don't have to be tolerant," he said "and we have a Supreme Court decision to that effect." I can confirm that I am not the only Portsmouth parent who has a clear and vivid recollection of this event.

The question we're going to put to the School Committee and administration is not the Boy Scouts' private membership restrictions, but rather the entanglement which ensues when a public institution expends public money for student participation in a program run by an organization which, as a matter of policy, excludes participation based on sexual orientation and religious belief.

Full disclosure: No disrespect is intended to my friends and neighbors who have shared their many positive stories and experiences with Scouting. I don't expect this to be a popular position, but I believe this is the right thing to do.