GLSEN, the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, is outraged after hearing that a Clayton County, Ga., teacher allegedly put out a hit on one of his students a few days after questioning the student’s sexual orientation.
The Mundy’s Mill High School teacher has since been charged with making terrorist threats.
“Our thoughts and sympathies go out to the student and the student's family,” GLSEN Executive Director Eliza Byard said. “This incident is deeply troubling on many levels. The charges, if true, are horrifying. Anti-LGBT bias and behavior among students is troubling and damaging enough without the added danger of irresponsible actions on the part of the adults responsible for their education and care.”
While much of what happened and was said remain unclear, many LGBT youth report hearing teachers make inappropriate comments. According to GLSEN’s 2007 National School Climate Survey, 63% of LGBT students said they had heard teachers or other school staff make homophobic remarks such as "faggot" or "dyke."
Read more about the incident here in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
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This particular incident is especially troubling because it happened at a Metro Atlanta school, most of which have personnel policies that specify sexual orientation nondiscrimination in hiring and services.
But it also happened in Clayton County, a system, just south of the airport that has been going through massive trouble in keeping qualified teachers and last year lost its accreditation. They left in droves a few years back when the superintendent tried to make the teachers sign their contracts early, before they could see if other systems had better offers. The Board could not get along well enough with itself to do its job.
Mundy's Mill is not in a low income, inner city area where disrespect of students might be expected and thus nipped in the bud, but in a middle class suburban area. The teacher should have known better. But then I am not even sure he was a real teacher. I did not see his certification mentioned in the article. He might have been alternate certified.
The act just shows that when your school system is run poorly, the teachers are more likely to act inappropriately and take out their personal issues on the children.
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