SPIRITUAL GUIDANCE:

Recently I met a couple whose daughter is involved in a “hate crime” at her school that forced her parents to file a lawsuit to protect her.

Their daughter has been subjected to online threats of extreme sexual abuse and brutal physical harm.

She is also in a musical at school that has inspired additional displays of hatred. When her parents asked for help, they were met with the kind of apathy that has given rise to school violence across our nation.

Additionally, a columnist for the Daily Pilot dismissed these threats stating, “Kids will be kids,” and while the administration is, “trying to protect Mary … unfortunately, they can’t be everywhere at once.”

How can this type of response be acceptable in light of what we know happened at Columbine?

The song “Amazing Grace” has an appropriate lyric: “I once was lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see.”

The desire to put a lid on these circumstances has resulted in a state of blind-denial — the same sort of blindness and denial experienced across the nation when schools ignore the early warning signs of hate.

I have seen this blindness before. I taught junior and senior high school for 15 years. I know the violence it can inspire.

The district is sleeping on a potential malignancy that must be healed now to stop it from spreading to future generations.

I urge the Newport-Mesa School District to seek help from professionals who know how to do a districtwide intervention that could bring dialogue and not disaster.

This is a Columbine cry for help and it must not fall on deaf ears.

If you are experiencing the fear hate crimes motivate, go to www.cmcsd.org and click the picture of Ellis Hall’s version of “Amazing Grace.” And remember: God doesn’t hate anybody!

JIM TURRELL is the senior pastor at the Center for Spiritual Living.