News Oct 28, 2010 at 4:00 am

How a Gay Student Teacher Won Back His Job—and District Reform

Comments

1
One thing that sticks out in all this is, that to this day noone knows the idenity of the homophobic parent who complained in the first place. How could it be that soo much shit can be started just by one coward making an anonymous complaint? Why does THAT person remain protected?
2
DamosA what would you do? What do you mean by "protected?"
3
The squeaky wheel gets the grease, and in this case the other wheels squeaked more. I'm glad he was reinstated; it was the right thing to do.

My guess is that some fundamentalist parent got word and got in touch with someone with similar beliefs and this thing blew up.

I think its ok to let the parent be quiet in the aftermath of this... imagine whats going through their head though!!
4
The whole "gay teacher" thing is like a dog whistle to the right-winger/christian coalition, it plays right into their "indoctrinating-of-the-youth" fears they all seem to share. The sooner everyone starts treating non-heteros like human beings and not like some disease that needs to be "tolerated" the sooner we can start wringing our hands over real social issues.
5
Just what are the parents teaching their children that they would think it was okay to ask the marital question anyway? It is none of the kid's or parents business. But since it was asked, the teacher did the right thing and answered honestly. There is nothing wrong with being gay. If he was straight, would there have been a problem answering this question?
6
I thought about boycotting Beaverton in light of this whole mess. but where else could I find a Bed Bath and Beyond AND a Subway??
7
I hope he learned his lesson and will dress less provocatively in the future.
8
I'm a bit confused. In the initial article the question asked by the student was "Are you married" in this article they say the student asked why his teacher wasn't married...
I'm glad he got his job back, it's shitty that he had to go through all of this in the first place, but I still feel that it's inappropriate to give a fourth grader personal information about your marital status, unless it's your kid, REGARDLESS of your sexual orientation...
9
As a product of the public school system, I knew the "marital status" of most, if not all, of my teachers. Either because they were women and had the "Mrs." in front of their name, or because of examples cited in class of "my husband..." or "my girlfriend..." I recently saw an episode of a Nick Jr. pre-school aimed animated program with my twin girls that was based in a classroom. The female teacher was getting married, and not only talked openly about her wedding but invited the students in her class to attend the ceremony and even got one of the girls and one of the boys in class to be her flower girl & ring bearer. I had a Health teacher in high school who actually talked INCESSANTLY about her divorce and her ex-husband. In the "straight" community people in every profession talk openly, and often, about their significant others or spouses without even really noticing that they're doing it half the time. Go to work someday and try to notice. Try to keep track of when other people mention who they're with or something about their love life and try also to go an entire day without mentioning, in any capacity, your own "special someone". When the gay community talks openly in public about their home-life or puts a rainbow sticker on their car or does just about anything "gay" it is called a "political agenda". But if a straight person in the same public arena has the same conversation with the pronouns swapped or puts a family of stick figures or 'just married' on their car its not even noticed. I am a lesbian. I have been with my partner for more than 10 years. We have 3 year old twin girls and BOTH of our names are on their birth certificates. I am Mama & she is Mommy. The only AGENDA I have is the right to talk openly about my family without fear of backlash.

Bravo to the school board for righting their wrong.

Please wait...

Comments are closed.

Commenting on this item is available only to members of the site. You can sign in here or create an account here.


Add a comment
Preview

By posting this comment, you are agreeing to our Terms of Use.