April Edition: Pushing for Equity

Greetings from Cleveland, Ohio!

This post is going to be all encompassing. It is going to include the sexuality talk I gave to a group of students and faculty in Buffalo and the fact that the organizer of SEED in Western New York, the group of which I am a proud member, is whom I wrote this month's article about. This is remarkable and cannot be kept brief in this post.

April 1st, 2009 is a day that will be a memorable day for this gay teenager. I told my story to about 30-40 people, in which they are part of the faculty and student SEED groups at my school. Fellow teachers from my school were at the seminar on sexuality and I was able to see a new side to these wonderful people I have come to know for a long time at Park School.

My English teacher, Mrs. Reynolds, sat next to me during the seminar and it was really nice to have her make side comments in which they made me laugh to a good extent. She is a progressive woman, in which she has helped me to become a more critical and improved writer. Ms. Brady, the director of admissions at my school, also attended the seminar and it is nice because she and I have worked on publicizing Park School in the community. There are many teachers and students I can write about, but as you know of me, it would be too long.

The main correlation between the sexuality talk and this month's article is the woman in which I met her through SEED and has become a dear friend of The Coffee Teen. Her name is Gretchen Cercone and she is the Diversity and Community Engagment Coordinator at BISSNET (a consortium of independent schools in WNY). Gretchen is a kind and good woman and it is my hope that you will like what I wrote in this article.

http://www.newedinburgh.ca/images/NEN/NEN_APR09.pdf (NOTE: Page 32)

Unfortunately, the internet at the hotel I am staying at is not the greatest and I will have to wait unti I head to Chicago tomorrow before I can write more posts. I stopped over in Cleveland due to my family's interest to see the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It was pretty groovy actually.

Well. This will certainly not be the last.

William

PS A picture of Gretchen Cercone at Spot Coffee (March 1, 2009)