# Target Kevin Jennings **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [October 15, 2009, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/target-kevin-jennings/513930 "2009-10-15T17:45:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![boytyperanma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4491bb/32.png) [@boytyperanma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boytyperanma)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2009, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/target-kevin-jennings/513930/1 "2009-10-15T17:45:33Z")
Congressman Steve King along with 52 of his fellows has written letter calling on Obama to fire Jennings from his position running the Education Department’s Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools. They claim he does not have the ‘experience or ethical standards’ to hold the position. Fox news has been working to discredit him. So far they have accursed him of supporting statutory rape and are now jumping through leaps of logic to connect him with NAMBLA. Is he qualified for the possiton? Is there any reason he should be removed? Will Obama give in to the demand? ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2009, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/target-kevin-jennings/513930/2 "2009-10-15T17:50:33Z")
For a minute there, I thought this was about some new _Jeopardy!_ tournament. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2009, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/target-kevin-jennings/513930/3 "2009-10-15T17:52:34Z")
Any links to the Fox ‘News’ crackpottery … I mean stories? ---
**Author:** ![boytyperanma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4491bb/32.png) [@boytyperanma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boytyperanma)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2009, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/target-kevin-jennings/513930/4 "2009-10-15T18:01:15Z")
[http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/10/15/house-republicans-obama-safe-schools-czar/](http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/10/15/house-republicans-obama-safe-schools-czar/) > **[Fox News - Breaking News Updates | Latest News Headlines | Photos & News...](https://www.foxnews.com/)** > > Breaking News, Latest News and Current News from FOXNews.com. Breaking news and video. Latest Current News: U.S., World, Entertainment, Health, Business, Technology, Politics, Sports. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2009, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/target-kevin-jennings/513930/5 "2009-10-15T18:17:55Z")
He is qualified. There is abosultely no reason he should be removed. He is victim of a full on [smear job](http://mediamatters.org/research/200910090043) by the right wing media complex. Not a single accusation is true. They just hate him because he’s gay, and because he’s empathetic to gay teens. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2009, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/target-kevin-jennings/513930/6 "2009-10-15T18:23:15Z")
> [@boytyperanma](#): > > [http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/10/15/house-republicans-obama-safe-schools-czar/](http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/10/15/house-republicans-obama-safe-schools-czar/) > > [Fox News - Breaking News Updates | Latest News Headlines | Photos & News Videos](http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,561044,00.html) Jesus, the comments on those pages… ---
**Author:** ![Alienhand](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8edcca/32.png) [@Alienhand](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alienhand)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2009, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/target-kevin-jennings/513930/7 "2009-10-15T18:39:45Z")
I made it this far: > [@Fox News](#): > > Fifty-three House Republicans on Thursday urged President Obama to fire his “safe schools czar,” citing their concerns that Kevin Jennings wants to promote a “homosexual agenda” It’s not even worth the time to sort out what is real and what is complete bullshit. Wolf has been cried too many times at this point. I need a police report showing this guy raped someone before I even begin to care. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2009, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/target-kevin-jennings/513930/8 "2009-10-15T18:48:54Z")
The big egregious thing he did is that he once told a 16 year old student, “I hope you used condoms,” when the student told him he was involved in a relationship with an older man. That makes him a child rapist in the Fox News universe. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2009, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/target-kevin-jennings/513930/9 "2009-10-15T19:08:47Z")
Are you kidding? He’s gay. That alone makes him a child rapist in the Fox ‘News’ universe. ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2009, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/target-kevin-jennings/513930/10 "2009-10-16T01:23:03Z")
On the sixteen year old comment by Mr. Jennings: Shouldn’t a man with a responsibility in a school function offer moral advice or at least suggestion in a relationship of a student with an older man. Did he investiage the possiblility that the relationship may be manipulative? If he so easily dismissed a student with just utterly amoral advice he does not have the right to be a man in charge of a significant area of our nation’s educational policy. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2009, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/target-kevin-jennings/513930/11 "2009-10-16T01:53:22Z")
He didn’t offer any advice, he just asked if the kid was using condoms. Nothing amoral about that. He did not encourage the relationship, but the kid was of legal age anyway, and, as it turns out, wasn’t even having sex. Stressing the importance of condoms was a completely responsible and moral thing to do. Jennings says he regrets not question anything furthjer, because he was taken aback, but the student did not indicate that he was being exploited, and, let me repeat, HE WAS ABOVE THE AGE OF CONSENT. There is nothing to that story. There is nothing to any of this smear job. He’s just being attacked for being gay. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2009, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/target-kevin-jennings/513930/12 "2009-10-16T02:03:42Z")
[Here’s a statement](http://mediamatters.org/blog/200910020029) from the student in question: > [@](#): > > Since I was of legal consent at the time, the fifteen-minute conversation I had with Mr. Jennings twenty-one years ago is of nobody’s concern but his and mine. However, since the Republican noise machine is so concerned about my “well-being” and that of America’s students, they’ll be relieved to know that I was not “inducted” into homosexuality, assaulted, raped, or sold into sexual slavery. > > In 1988, I had taken a bus home for the weekend, and on the return trip met someone who was also gay. The next day, I had a conversation with Mr. Jennings about it. I had no sexual contact with anybody at the time, though I was entirely legally free to do so. I was a sixteen year-old going through something most of us have experienced: adolescence. I find it regrettable that the people who have the compassion and integrity to protect our nation’s students are themselves in need of protection from homophobic smear attacks. Were it not for Mr. Jennings’ courage and concern for my well-being at that time in my life, I doubt I’d be the proud gay man that I am today. Can we put this horseshit to rest now? ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2009, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/target-kevin-jennings/513930/13 "2009-10-16T02:03:55Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > but the student did not indicate that he was being exploited, I don’t think people who are exploited usually say so. However I do agree with the rest of your bit. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2009, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/target-kevin-jennings/513930/14 "2009-10-16T02:09:22Z")
I think it’s also worth noting that the same lying, hypocritical asswipes trying slander Jennings as a achilkd rape addvocate are the SAME asswipes who don’t think Halliburton employees hould have to suffer any consequences for gang raping a woman and stuffing her in a box, or that the woman should have any right to sue Halliburton for letting it happen. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2009, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/target-kevin-jennings/513930/15 "2009-10-16T02:12:00Z")
> [@Curtis LeMay](#): > > I don’t think people who are exploited usually say so. However I do agree with the rest of your bit. All the student did was talk to a guy on the bus. Jennings himself was only 24 at the time, and basically has indicated that he was caught off guard, and didn’t really know what to say. Stammering out “I hope you use condoms” is not an egregious thing to say, especially since the kid was of legal age. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2009, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/target-kevin-jennings/513930/16 "2009-10-16T02:15:41Z")
> [@Curtis LeMay](#): > > On the sixteen year old comment by Mr. Jennings: Shouldn’t a man with a responsibility in a school function offer moral advice or at least suggestion in a relationship of a student with an older man. Did he investiage the possiblility that the relationship may be manipulative? If he so easily dismissed a student with just utterly amoral advice he does not have the right to be a man in charge of a significant area of our nation’s educational policy. You know what, Curtis? He said in testimony that in retrospect he should have handled it differently. But it also occurs to me that a casual encounter with a student, in another town outside the school setting, he may have done the precise right thing in a casual warning about safe sex and avoiding making an issue of it. Or perhaps the concept of implied confidentiality has not occurred to you? ---
**Author:** ![Terraplane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/74df32/32.png) [@Terraplane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terraplane)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2009, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/target-kevin-jennings/513930/17 "2009-10-16T02:31:24Z")
> [@Curtis LeMay](#): > > I don’t think people who are exploited usually say so. However I do agree with the rest of your bit. And people who weren’t exploited usually say “I wasn’t exploited.” Unless you have some compelling reason to believe otherwise, why wouldn’t you take him at his word? ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2009, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/target-kevin-jennings/513930/18 "2009-10-16T02:33:07Z")
> [@omgzebras](#): > > And people who weren’t exploited usually say “I wasn’t exploited.” Unless you have some compelling reason to believe otherwise, why wouldn’t you take him at his word? I’m not distrusting the student, I’m just not utterly certain of it. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2009, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/target-kevin-jennings/513930/19 "2009-10-16T02:36:04Z")
> [@omgzebras](#): > > And people who weren’t exploited usually say “I wasn’t exploited.” Unless you have some compelling reason to believe otherwise, why wouldn’t you take him at his word? Well, he infected him with teh ghey, for one. Now who knows how many innocent children this infected child molester will convert himself! ---
**Author:** ![fuzzypickles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/9d8465/32.png) [@fuzzypickles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fuzzypickles)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2009, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/target-kevin-jennings/513930/20 "2009-10-16T13:45:05Z")
Someone should advise Fox News that 16 yrs is way, way too old for NAMBLA. Not to mention the legion of rabidly anti-gay conservatives who have been discovered to be gay themselves – Mark Foley, Larry Craig, Ted Haggard, etc. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/target-kevin-jennings/513930.md?page=2)