VISTA: Proposal for ‘Carrie Prejean Day’ fails

Posted on May 16, 2009
Filed Under Uncategorized

VISTA —- A proposal to make June 1 “Carrie Prejean Day” in the Vista Unified School District failed late Thursday night, after the school board member who suggested it couldn’t get his colleagues to sign on.Prejean, a 2005 graduate of Vista High School, made headlines last month when she competed as Miss California in the nationally televised Miss USA Pageant and answered a question about same-sex marriage posed by a pageant judge.Prejean’s answer —- that marriage should be between a man and a woman —- may have cost her the crown and created a firestorm of controversy.Since the pageant, she has appeared on several news shows defending her beliefs. Meanwhile, semi-nude photos of her surfaced on the Internet.On Thursday night, hundreds of people packed the multipurpose room at Foothill Oak Elementary School for the Vista school board meeting, many waiting late into the evening to speak for or against the idea.”Carrie Prejean is not a spokesperson for traditional marriage,” said one of the first speakers on the issue, Jill Parvin, a parent in the district who has frequently sided with Gibson. “She is a former student with the courage to speak her mind.”An opposing view was presented by Evelyn Thomas, director of education and youth services for the North County Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and transgender Coalition in Oceanside.”It is wrong to teach bigotry and discrimination,” Thomas told the board. “The reality is, students —- your students —- are part of nontraditional families.” See VISTA: Proposal for ‘Carrie Prejean Day’ fails
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