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Saturday, June 28, 1997

School board may observe Disney boycott by canceling choir's trip

CARROLLTON, Texas (AP) - In support of a boycott against Walt Disney Co., the Carrollton-Farmers Branch school board has withdrawn its approval for a high school choir trip next year, pending further discussion.

The Carrollton R.L. Turner High School choir was scheduled to compete against other groups next April at Disney World in Orlando, Fla.

"We all show our approval for a business by trading with that business, and sometimes we don't because they don't meet our standards," board member Doug Hellman said.

He cited Disney's granting of medical benefits to partners of gay employees as a reason for the action.

"Sometimes these standards are moral standards," Hellman said.

Carrollton and Farmers Branch are Dallas suburbs.

The action came one week after Southern Baptists meeting in Dallas voted to boycott Disney for "immoral ideologies."

The school board withdrew a routine item from its consent agenda that would have granted the choir permission to travel out of state.

Hellman asked that the choir's travel request be removed from the board's consent agenda after passing literature to other board members about the Disney Co. policy.

Board members, some of them reluctant, agreed to withdraw the item until the district staff could contact parents for their opinions and ascertain whether the choir would be willing to consider an alternative competition.

Hellman is a leader in the Dallas County Christian Coalition. He has been an outspoken critic of policies that he says single out benefits to gays and lesbians, such as a recent Dallas Area Rapid Transit board vote banning discrimination in employment based on sexual orientation.

Thursday, Hellman likened patronizing Disney World to shopping at a store harboring an illicit drug-dealing operation.

"Disney World isn't selling drugs, but the influence that Disney is promoting is just as destructive," he said. "It has to do with moral values."

Some board members questioned whether the school district should be spending time determining the moral character of the corporations with which it does business.

Board member Linda Taylor said the district should not single out Disney for scrutiny. Rather, she said, the district should establish a policy to which the board can defer when such "moral" questions arise in the future.

"I wonder if we're not stepping off in some deep areas that are going to take up a lot of our time," school trustee Michael Morgan said. "Just because you read something in an article doesn't mean it's fact." Send a Letter to the Editor about This Story | Start or Join A Discussion about This Story
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