Thursday, October 27, 2011

Another Teacher In Trouble Over Anti-Gay Remarks

Click to emBIGGERate

What is it with people making the most horrific comments on Facebook, and then acting all stunned when their hate-speech goes viral?Case in point: Misssouri math teacher Jim Whitney, who is in trouble for making a comment on the Facebook page of a former student last week, when that student posted a link to a news article article about Jamie Hubley's suicide after bullying.

Whitney posted: "Moral of the story: Don't be gay."

And then, when the question about how many LGBTQ youth suicides it would take before people pay attention to the problem of bullying, Jim Whitney replied, "11-13 ought to do it." 

Of course, Jim Whitney has released an apology for his idiotic, homophobic, hateful, and bullying remarks, but, after you post asinine things, it's kinda hard to take them back. One would have thought a teacher would have known that. The Joplin School Board is now investigating the incident.

So, what is this new trend of teachers and educators taking to Facebook to post their idiotic, narrowminded opinions and then acting shocked and stunned when their words become public knowledge?

It was just last month that social studies teacher Jerry Buell posted anti-marriage equality remarks on his Facebook page. And then we had a teacher in New Jersey who described homosexuality as "a perverted spirit" on her Facebook page, and then called it a "sin that breeds like cancer." 

Makes one wonder, if these are the words and beliefs of the teachers, how can we be surprised at the words and beliefs of the students? And how can we expect teachers who think like these three asshats, and, no doubt, others, to do anything about students bullying other students, for any reason, when their own words are often bullying?

How many more will it take?


via The Advocate

5 comments:

  1. Very well said, Bob. How can we hope for teachers to protect students from bullies when it is the teachers themselves doing the bullying?

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  2. "Keep silent and be thought a fool, speak and remove all doubt."

    I think that this quote about those teachers sums it up nicely...

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  3. Educators are as diverse as the rest of the population. Some self interested, hateful, uncultured, bigots are bound to be present. Support is on our side on this issue. As long as we stand up and call out this lot, we should be able to keep their numbers down in the teaching profession.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Schools are becoming a non-safe space for our kids

    ReplyDelete
  5. And how many ears must one man have,
    before he can hear people cry ?
    And how many deaths will it take till we know,
    that too many people have died?

    The answer my friend is blowing in the wind,
    the answer is blowing in the wind.

    ReplyDelete

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