News Oct 7, 2010 at 4:00 am

Beaverton Student Teacher Booted for Mentioning Gay Marriage

Comments

1
If the Beaverton School District has an "un-official" DADT policy, then why don't they just nut up & goddamn say so?

And it really does look like Stambaugh was set up. It's clear that some bigoted asshole - whom thus far remains protected by anonymity - had it in for the guy. I feel that this cowardly snitch put his or her kid up to it (seriously, since when did students give a shit whether their teachers were married?). Stambaugh, not knowing better at the time, fell right in the trap.

But it is fortunate to hear that Stambaugh may STILL get to be a teacher right here in Portland, which is probably what he should've gone for in the 1st place. To Hell with Beaverton.
2
It may be that the student was "set-up" by equally strange parents. But I feel Stambaugh displayed a great deal of unprofessional-ism by speaking his personal and political beliefs to a nine year old. When asked if he was married, the age-appropriate response to the child should have been something like, "No, I'm not. But I hope to be married some day." End of conversation. No excuses, no political agenda. Children do not go to school to hear about their (student) teacher's political agenda or their private lives. Fourth graders aren't really interested in those things. Perhaps Stambaugh slept through his child development classes or perhaps he didn't take any childhood development classes at all. His answer as quoted was inappropriate in a public school setting.

I was working for a public school district on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. A few of the students mentioned planes and crumbling buildings that morning. The age-appropriate response was, "Yes, I heard about that! What do you think?" The students would respond that their mom/dad/grandma was really upset and worried. The developmentally appropriate thing is to make the student feel like it's a regular day, even though mom/dad/grandma are freaking out. The age-appropriate response was, "I understand that your mom/dad/grandma is upset, but you're safe here at school. Did you get your homework done? Stop running in the hall!" I digress. What Stambaugh said to that student was way outside the bounds of professionalism and I hope this incident helps him to re-think his career choice because, based on this article, he has no understanding of children and should probably not be around them six hours a day, 10 months a year.
3
It's not a "political agenda" just for Stambaugh to have mentioned that he's not allowed to marry a person of his own gender. It's just a factual description of the current legal reality, Polishkatin.

And your insistence on labeling Stambaugh as "unprofessional" clearly reveals your own homophobia.

4
I think what reveals Polishkatie's homophobia is her implicit parallel between 9/11 and gay marriage.

But she does have a small point. I've worked in the public school system, and everyone knows the drill: don't make eye contact, don't be friendly, don't say anything remotely personal, social, or political, or that can be construed as such. You can't be a human being to your students: keep your head down and drill in the standardized test material.

This, of course, has nothing to do with professionalism, or proper child development, or good pedagogy (if such a thing still exists), or anything else it masquerades as. It has everything to do with the school avoiding a lawsuit, or incidents like this one with crazy, creepy parents. Being a teacher these days is thankless, dangerous, and unfulfilling. Maybe Stambaugh should, as katie says, find a different career path. I did.
5
I don't think Stambaugh should have to find a different carrer path just b/c of some bigoted homophobic parent. He'll just run afoul of the same assholes no matter what he chooses to do in life. The man already went to school to be an educator. He's only 23, so assuming he's got years of student loans to pay off, it seems like it would be rather absurd for Stambaugh to uproot his life over this.

This is not career-destroying. He just has to start teaching in Portland, become a full-time teacher, gain tenure (by then gay marriage just might be legal in OR), & he'll be alright.

But i just feel sorry for that kid who clearly has to coup with some shitty parents.
6
This story, like so many others we have seen of late, is not only disheartening, but terrifying. In a place where imparting knowledge is the primary objective, what did this child just learn? That's it is ok to hate and hurt others because of your own prejudice. Bigotry and discrimination has no place in the educational system and it is truly unbelievable this is happening in this century. Those who do not learn from history...
7
I am the parent of a 5th grader and my best friend happens to be gay. I still agree with polishkatie. It is not the place for any education professional to express personal strife. Whether the child was sent by the parent is irrelevant. Opinions, personal or political, should remain outside of the classroom. It is the job of the educators to encourage individual thinking. Their influence should come from questions that make children think, not from stress from topics they don’t understand. This is a subject most adults struggle to understand. How can anyone expect a child to be able to form opinions on it is just crazy. Sorry, but a simple “no” would have been sufficient.
8
The teacher wasn't EXPRESSING an opinion, dammit! He was just explaining the legal realities that currently constrict his life.

It's no different than if a teacher, in some school in 1963, had answered a white child's question about why there were no black kids in school. In that case, the simple honest answer would have been that it was against the law(in this case)for black kids to have been in that school.

Stambaugh was NOT obligated to hide the truth, about either himself OR the law. And nothing that he said could possibly have harmed any of those kids.
9
Oh, and "magic1", just so you know, ANY time somebody says anything that's a variant of "some of my best friends are...", WHILE defending restrictions imposed on the group from which said "friends" are drawn, that person is inevitably outing her or himself as a stone bigot.

Take some time to look inside yourself.
10
"Opinions, personal or political, should remain outside of the classroom."
I guess that's a good way to TRY to turn out children who are nothing but reservoirs of memorized facts and nothing more. Teachers can try to leave out political opinions, but so many things are inherently political that it's impossible to do so. Avoiding any controversial opinions or subject matter simply biases all classroom discussion of current events, "social studies" etc. in favor of a tacit and unthinking acceptance of the status quo. An example of that status quo is the double standard at hand: that a straight female teacher can refer to her husband, thus sharing that she likes men, when a gay male teacher cannot safely share the very same fact about himself.
11
I personally attended one of the two forums mentioned in this article and heard Seth Stambaugh's testimony first hand. This article, while well written, does slightly misrepresent the conversation held between Mr. Stambaugh and his student.

According to Seth Stambaugh, the student asked if he was married, to which he replied no. The student then inquired as to why he wasn't married. Seth replied that it would be illegal for him to get married. The student questioned further asking why it would be illegal, "are you not old enough?". Seth told the student that it would be illegal for him to get married because he has a boyfriend & not a girlfriend. That was the end of the conversation.

Another interesting point that wasn't mentioned in this article is that, according to Seth's lawyer, the student whose parents complained was not the student with whom this conversation was held. It was another student in the class who overheard them speaking.
12
"Another interesting point that wasn't mentioned in this article is that, according to Seth's lawyer, the student whose parents complained was not the student with whom this conversation was held. It was another student in the class who overheard them speaking."

If this is all true, then that's very telling & revealing! I wonder if anyone can find out the identites of the parents who caused all this. I'd think that Stambaugh has a Right to face his accusers.
13
I strongly disagree that a person should not tell a 9 year old about their marital status. Stupid American puritanism, stupid American lack of respect for young people thinking we have to "shield" them from innocuous things like relationship status. We project our deep insecurities and hang-ups onto our children all the time. Grow the fuck up, America. And grow up Beaverton School District. This story makes me about as angry as anything I've read in a long time.
14
I am so sick of hearing about how homosexuals have been wronged. I am pissed about how homosexuals have wronged me. I moved to this majority homosexual city last summer and have lost 3 jobs because I won't join the rainbow brigade. I was never homophobic until now. As far as don't ask don't tell and military is concerned, the Army has a prerequisite that you must be homosexual because guess what, I got kicked out of the Army for not being gay. You homosexuals will never get any sympathy or support from me. You think you can take over the whole world.
15
Yowza. Someone called the padded paddywagon. This one's a live wire.
16
That was a decent troll attempt TARAD, but remember that the point is you're supposed to irritate in a way that incites a reaction. My thoughts are that you could reduce the eye-roll factor by being a little bit less fantastical, and I probably would have thrown in something related to the article for the sake of context. Otherwise, it's just kind of a head-scratcher. Keep at it though, your basics are all there and it's pretty easy to get the hang of once it clicks.
17
It's an unfortunate situation when grown-ups set such a poor example for kids by resorting to name calling (the people posting comments here) and power struggles (the parents who went over the teachers head and presumably pressured the school to get rid of the guy). I think that PolishKatie made a good point, in that the teachers response really wasn't appropriate for a 9 year old student. However expecting a new student teacher to perform perfectly and maintain the correct balance between self expression and political correctness in a new environment, and then firing him for his first mistake, isn't really fair either. After reading the article, it just seems like the whole thing could have been solved with a simple conversation between the parents, principal, and the student teacher. Instead a controversial issue was handled poorly and thus will continue to drive people apart. People have the right to live how they want to live even if you don't agree with their lifestyle, however people also have the right to think that something is wrong and thus want to encourage their children differently, even if you find that offensive or "intolerant".
18
Its offensive and intolerable that we teach our kids to be offensive and intolerant. You have the right to believe whatever you want no matter how horrid and inhumane it is, but to pass your homophobia on to school children is appalling. The guy answered a simple question, one that had nothing to do with sexual behavior and was not even explicitly political, and was canned because the parents, people in the school district, and people like you are less mature than the children he was trying to teach.
19
Where you're wrong Ovidius is when you start labeling people with derogatory terms like homophobe just because they don't see things the same was as you. I don't know what it is like to be gay but I assume that at times it may have been tough and that many people who are openly gay have possibly endured derogatory labeling and ostracism from those around them. Everyone fights a battle in life and when your trials have left you wounded and scarred and you respond in love despite all that you have endured, then you have fought the good fight my friend. You say that its offensive and intolerable that we teach our kids to be offensive and intolerant. But aren't you just saying that people should have to raise their kids in agreement with what you think is right? I mean your own children, the thing that you love more than anything else in this world, you build into them and you spend a great chunk of your life showing them how to live well; and you want nothing more than for them to be happy. Shouldn't a parent be able to guide their children into what they think is going to lead to that child's long term happiness. Some people are bigots and they hate people that are different. But some people genuinely believe that men and women are different and that the love they share with each other completes and challenges one another in a way that's different from a same sex relationship. Some people genuinely believe that the love a man shows his children affects them differently than the love of a mother, and that a child benefits from being nourished by both these loves. You may think that the best society is one where only ideas that you label as acceptable are allowed to exist. I see the good society as one where all ideas are allowed their shot at life, and it's up to the people in that society to fight for what they believe in.
20
You sound surprisingly like this guy:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/11/nyregion…

Ptowny, every bigot believes that they're a swell person despite their beliefs. You can circumlocute and microparse all you want. I get it, you don't fear gay people -- they're wonderful people, some of your friends are gay, yada yada -- you just think they're an insidious cancer slowly corrupting your civilization. Your good intentions don't change the fact that you are a bonafide homophobe.

You can teach your kids whatever you like. You can teach your kids that women shouldn't be able to vote. You can teach them that the white race is superior to others. You can teach them that its a sin to go to see a doctor. Mold your children however you like, but don't play the victim when people suggest that, maybe, children ought to be taught more humane and modern principles. As for being raised by a man and a woman, I suppose a lot of people, like myself, were raised by single parents. I love my mother, but I would have valued a second parent of any kind.

Your good society, where things are so liberated that people can believe whatever they please, is a thinly veiled excuse for your goose-stepping toward whatever right wing culture war is being drummed up for your sad lumpenprole vote. This right wing martyrdom complex, the idea that people are hated and oppressed because they don't feel like they can hate and oppress freely, is wearing very thin this cycle.
21
Stambaugh was wrong for the way he responded to his 9 year old student. I think it may have been a more appropriate response for a high school student. On the other hand, I also believe that there is a chance that he was set up.
I don't believe that Stambaugh should have lost his job, for the response, a verbal repremend should have been enough for him to not repeat his mistake, and I think he probably would have gotten just that if bigots weren't involved.
Hopefully Stambaugh learns to be more careful; it's a shitty world out there.
22
I am sick of the double standard that makes queer people's relationship status taboo and allows straight teachers to talk openly about their marriages, their spouses, or who they are dating. Putting a photo 'flaunting' your heterosexual relationship on your desk is perfectly acceptable but giving a kid a straight forward, honest answer to a simple question crosses a line? This is discrimination plain and simple and I hope the school district gets slapped with a huge lawsuit.
23
I think that people are missing the point when it comes to what stambaugh did wrong! He shouldn't have given personal information about himself to a 9 year old! He could have simply said "no, I'm not married." Why give the little kid more info than he asks for? He wasn't teaching a politics class to college students! If he were straight and he answered "no, because the last woman I was with wasn't faithful" that would have been equally as unacceptable, IT WAS A LITTLE KID!
I hate the fact that a bunch of stupid bigots blew this way out of proportion and
fired him and tried to totally ruin his career, this wasn't called for and he SHOULD
sue the shit out of them all! But I also hate the fact that many people believe that the way he answered the child's question was appropriate, IT WAS'NT! Teach the kid reading and writing, let the parents decide the rest. It's not like the kid wouldn't eventually learn about the predigious sacks of shit in the world anyway, he didn't need Stambaugh the teach him at 9 years old.
24
Will the real Adolph Hitler please stand up, please stand up, please stand up.......

What a lot of people do not understand is that homosexuality and child molestation are not synonomous and a gay teacher who is out is safer for a child then the more common child predators who are heterosexual which makes up most of the prison population.

Even the least educated knows that heterosexuals have cornered the market on perversion and that is very easy to check, go to the internet.

Heterosexuals are nassssssssssssstyyyyyyyyy!

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