Absolutely unbelievable…
I hate that getting older means realizing that some people just don’t get it.
In first grade, I had to stand in the corner (the only time ever in my straight-A golden boy life) for calling a girl “gay.”
Yeah, whiterabbit, I know how you feel.
I’ll bet you that if Marcus had used the word “gay” in a derogatory manner, he wouldn’t have gone to the principal for it.
Pathetic.
A salon.com link and the ACLU, perfecto!
From Salon
From Lafayette La Advertiser:
One outa 3 aint bad.
To those who would call all the lawyers out like a pack of dogs, why? what law was broken?
This is horrible. If this happened to my child I would get him out of that school completely. Even if the teacher is fired the school is obviously hostile toward gays and this child would probably be ostracized and teased as long as he stays there.
I can’t believe he got in trouble for answering a classmate’s question in a correct and innocent manner - I thought his response was a very good one to satisfy a classmate’s natural curiosity. His parents obviously did a good job teaching him how to respond to questions.
I don’t know but either way, I think the school should be worrying about the boy’s grasp of the English language instead of his use of a simple three-letter word.
Where did you extrapolate this from?
From the fact that the Assistant Principal (and supossedly the Principal, too since she hasn’t stopped the madness)supported the teacher and said the word was so vile he wouldn’t repeat it on the phone. It is the school’s administrators that set the tone of the schoo. Did you even read the story?
I have to admit that picture stunned me for a moment. I was expecting a picture of her and her boy, and I thought (for a second) that was a picture of her and her giant 7 year old son, until I realized that it was her lover.
Well, let’s see, first you have the teacher:
Then you have the assistant principal:
The word in question being ‘gay’. (I too am struck by the irony of Marcus’ being made to write, 100 times, a word that’s “so bad that it couldn’t be repeated over the phone.”)
The principal: isn’t quoted anywhere, but clearly backed up the assistant principal.
The superintendent:
And that description, again, is:
Aside from the word ‘gay’ itself, which Easton claims wasn’t the issue (yeah, right, buddy: this is the word too evil to be used over the telephone, that Marcus had to write 100 times that he wouldn’t use again), there’s ‘likes’, which is hardly inappropriate (I’m sure “John likes Mary” would be OK; do you disagree? If so, you must think they go apoplectic when kids chant, “John and Mary sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G”), and that leaves the fact that ‘girl’ is both subject and object in the sentence where ‘likes’ is the verb.
Regarding that school as gay-unfriendly is hardly ‘extrapolation’.
Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech…
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Students do not surrender their First Amendment rights at the school house door. c.f. Tinker et.al. v Des MoinesIndependent Community School District et. al. Disciplining a child for non-disruptive speech is a violation of his civil rights. I hope this district gets nailed to the wall. Fire the teacher, fire the principal and dismantle the “behavior clinic” where this child was forced to denounce his family.
Momsix is an elemetary school teacher in Pennsylvania, and at least where she works, kids who are learning how to write (first and second grade) are encouraged to write the words down the way they sound, and that the spelling will be worked out later.
the sad thing is, I know a lot of people (church people) who would see nothing wrogn with this.
While my first instinct was to respond to this by sharing with you all the fact that I intensely dislike the word “lover” in this context, that instinct was overruled by my inability to resist the need to . . . to . . .
BWAH! Her name is Heather MANLEY!
I need a nap.
Homebrew and RTFirefly have summed it up. I would be very concerned about my child’s well being in a school where he is not allowed to use the word ‘gay’ in its correct context (not as an insult) when directly questioned about his family by a classmate. He is specifically being punished for using a bad word, presumably as if he had said ‘fuck’ or any type or racial slur. He did not say a bad word, he described his family as it exists in a very innocent and non-offensive way.
If I were this boy’s mother, I would not feel good about keeping him in a school where he cannot say that his parents are gay. This is different than explaining to a child that some people might react badly and he should just ignore them. Being punished for talking about his family could make him feel ashamed and confused about why other children can talk about their mother and father but he cannot tell other classmates why he has 2 mothers. It sends a message to the child that there is something so horrible about his family that he cannot even speak the word aloud. The teacher and administration are forcing shame upon this child and I would find that unacceptable.
I don’t see how the school can be seen as being friendly, or even tolerant, of gays in this case. It would be different if it was just a case of an over-zealous teacher, but she is backed by the administration.
(Please note I am not saying this to pass any type of judgement on the parents for keeping or not keeping the boy in this school, I am just saying that for me, this incident in itself would be enough to make me pull my child out of the school, regardless of the outcome of any litigation.)
I have a friend, last name of McQueeney, whose eight year old son loves playing dress-up in mommy’s clothes.
Names are powerful things.
county, try reading the cite before talking out of your ass.
You know, just for a change of pace. **
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Hey, if you want to, “Bite Me” - I read the OP. And that shit about a little kid’s freedom of speech in school, well that is pretty thin stuff. That ACLU letter is just a threat letter that attorneys do all the time.
There is an awful lot of stuff in this world that is offensive to an awful lot of people and it ain’t illegal.
Again, like my previous posts, I am offering opinions (which you are free to disregard). Except for the “Bite Me” that’s a firm offer.
Oh yeah, what if that is school policy supported by 75% of the people in the school district?
Y’all obviously haven’t had kids go through the American public school system in the 1990s.
Or, what Catsix said:
Same here in Illinois. Educators figure it’s better to get the kid to write down something–anything–than to spend time worrying about how he’s spelling it, and running the risk that he’ll be so cramped by having to spell it right that he won’t write down anything at all. “Spontaneity” and “creativity” are better than “accuracy” at this stage.
So, in the kid’s defense, he was spelling the way he was taught to spell–namely, by not worrying about how it was spelled.
Spelling issues aside, I think this kid shouldn’t be punished for accurately describing his home situation.
If he’s punished for this, not only are the teachers and administrators who punished him fucknuggets of a high degree, but also it will set up in the other kids’ minds the idea that there is something ‘bad’ about what this boy said, and therefore something wrong with the fact that Marcus’s moms are lesbians.
Marcus is already different from many of his classmates in that he has two moms who are lesbians. If the school, in any sort of way, makes an issue of that or makes it look more ‘different’ and ‘bad’ to the other students, he’s probably going to get picked on. The school should have taken an entirely different approach, and that is not only to not punish him, but if any other kid made fun of Marcus for who his moms are, those kids should be gently but firmly taught that it is not right to pick on Marcus for being different, or having a different kind of family.
deposits .02$
Then it is still just as wrong, both morally, ethically, and legally, but it is also a thousand times more depresssing.