SEATTLE – Seattle Public Schools officials put an end to a high school outdoor education class sponsored by the Boy Scouts of America after a parent complained about BSA’s policy against gay leaders.

School officials, however, framed their decision to dump the BSA curriculum used in the outdoor class at Garfield High School as one centered on concerns about curriculum, not BSA’s discrimination against gays, Fox reports.

“We reviewed this course offering and determined that the affiliation of Boy Scouts of America with a credit-bearing course is not appropriate,” according to a district press release. “The review revealed a consensus that there was concern over the academic rigor of the course. School administration had previous concerns about course content and agreed that a curriculum was needed.”

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BSA reversed its policy against gay youth in 2013, but does not allow openly gay leaders.

The Garfield High School outdoor class, commonly referred to as POST, is sponsored and insured by BSA. About 500 students are enrolled in the class, Seattle’s KING 5 News reports.

“Geoffrey McGrath, a former Boy Scout troop leader who was ousted for being gay, first raised questions over the Garfield POST program earlier in the summer, alleging the district’s relationship with the Boy Scouts violates its own hiring policies,” according to KING 5.

“The concern is that the employees implementing the program, that are contracted to provide the service to Seattle Public Schools, that’s a straights only workforce,” McGrath told the news site.

Scott McGowan, the advisor for the POST program, told KING 5 the district’s “academic rigor” excuse for breaking with the BSA doesn’t even make sense.

“I’m not clear why … an affiliation with Boy Scouts of America would have anything to do with the academic course work in the classroom,” he said.

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McGrath also isn’t buying the district’s lame excuse.

“This is a 30-year program they’ve had in place and they’re ending this year based on my complaint,” he told KING 5. “I don’t think it’s about academic rigor.

“It’s really hard to know what the truth is.”

District officials refused to discuss the matter with the media, instead offering only a prepared statement about the curriculum concerns.

School leaders plan to continue to offer the outdoor class, reworking it as a “Natural Resources” offering.

“By updating the course to Natural Resources there is a much stronger education focus on the field of science,” according to the district statement. “The Natural Resources curriculum is owned by the district and will be implemented as part of the course update.

“The changes are the results of a course review, not based on any discriminatory practices,” the district contends.

School officials told KING 5 they plan to continue the course as soon as they can secure the insurance coverage they lost by dumping the BSA.

While it doesn’t take a genius to realize Seattle school administrators are simply trying to side-step a touchy subject, the sequence of events certainly raises questions about the true motivations behind the move.

Instead of acknowledging the concerns about the BSA’s stance on homosexuals and hosting an open discussion about the program with the community, school leaders opted to insult parents by ending this long-standing and successful class under the guise of academics.

Which raises some important questions: If the BSA-sponsored class isn’t up to academic snuff, then why did it take Seattle officials 30 years to put a kibosh on it?

And if school officials based their decision on academics, why didn’t they previously take their concerns to program advisor McGowan, who was obviously taken off guard by the decision?

Seattle school officials owe the public a much better explanation.