Town officials are currently drafting a response to Phelps. It will affirm the group's right to protest, but disputes the facts of the article. What they will find is a community equipping itself with the tools to combat racism, sexism, classism, homophobia and all kinds of prejudice. Jeannine Cristina, the town's Parent Teacher Association president, said the program will consist of teacher training the first year, with an eye to helping teachers identify bias. Teachers will also be encouraged to select texts that include minority perspectives.
Similar programs are in place in many other schools across the state.
Bob Parlin, a history teacher at Newton South High School and a trainer with the state Department of Education's Safer Schools program, said he has given hundreds of training seminars on making schools safer by teaching tolerance. He estimated there were 150 Massachusetts high schools using a program similar to Provincetown's. The program was not all that different or unusual. But the Times article was unusual enough to catch the eye of the Christian Broadcast Network, which sent a crew here this week to do a piece on the controversy. CBN is part of televangelist and Christian Coalition supporter Pat Robertson's Family Channel and is carried on the MediaOne cable systems in most Cape towns.