Children Stand Up To Homophobia

There was a substitute teacher in the fifth-grade class at Deerfield Elementary School in Utah who asked the class to explain, one by one, what they were most thankful about this Thanksgiving. When it was Daniel’s turn, he stood up and said he was most thankful that he was “finally going to be adopted by my two dads.”

The teacher then launched into a ten-minute lecture about how “two men living together is a sin,” and then asked the boy:

“Why on earth would you be happy about that? That’s nothing to be thankful for.”

And while that teacher ranted, three girls in the class tried to intervene, tried to get the grown-up teacher to act like a grown-up teacher, and when their efforts failed, they left the room to get the principal, who came back with them and escorted the teacher out of the classroom.

And, as bigots and homophobes, as this substitute was being removed from the school, she continued to argue, continued to try and make her point, and told Daniel it was his fault that she went off on him.

You know, because he was thankful for having two dads. And the saddest thing—other than this homophobe being allowed to teach children—is that Daniel was afraid to speak because he thought it might hurt his chances at the adoption being finalized.

One of the his fathers, Louis van Amstel,  spoke to the mother of one of the girls, who told him:

“I am so glad that I raised my daughter in a way where she would stand up for what’s right.”

The good news is that a few days later, the family’s neighbors decorated their house with paper hearts that said “We love you” and “We support you.”

The better news is that children will be the ones to end this kind of bigotry and hate; the children will stand up for what is right.

The best news is that the substitute teacher at the center of this story has been fired from the staffing company that employed her.

And the bestest [not a word, I know] news is that Daniel will have two dads by Christmas.

Friendly Atheist

Random Musings

Ever have one of those days? I did on Monday when I just felt like something bad was about to happen ... it didn’t.

Still, that cartoon certainly fit my mood.

Well, apparently _____ is “enraged” by RussiaGate, which may explain why we haven’t seen him since he returned home from the G20 and we found out Junior is a lying sack of shiz.

Look at it like this:

His son was there.

His son-in-law was there.

His campaign manager was there.

It was in his building.

He was in the building.

And yet he expects anyone to believe he had no knowledge of the meeting, or that he was at the meeting?

::::cough::::bullshit::::cough::::

Jordan Cataldo, a teacher at Carter G. Woodson Elementary School, is accused of calling elementary school students “rats” that could “infest the class” as a group of children attempted to re-enter her classroom; she also said, and saying “that’s why their race is either dead or in jail.”

Yup. And she was teaching children.

Duval County Public Schools said it will “take appropriate action in accordance with the collective bargaining agreement when school resumes for the 2017-2018 school year.”

Um, appropriate action would be firing Jordan Cataldo’s ass and making sure she is never allowed to “teach” again. Anywhere.

I always visit Raybeard to get the skinny on movies because his reviews are spot on to the films I’ve seen, and the films I want to see after reading his reviews.

He gave Brooklyn a good review but it only played an arthouse theater about forty minutes from Smallville so we missed it. Luckily I was able to see it on cable recently because it’s a beautiful film; it looks beautiful, the acting—by Saoirse Ronan and Emory Cohen especially—is beautiful, the story is a simple, sweet, lovely, beautiful love story of an Irish girl finding herself, and love, in America in the middle of the last century.

It doesn’t make a lot of noise, but it gives quite an impact.

So, when _____ met Putin at the G20 last week for the ... ALLEGED ... first time, reporters filmed and photographed the two men before being ordered to leave the room.

Putin was caught on camera asking _____:

"These are the ones that insulted you?"

And _____ agreed with the man who stands accused of murdering journalists.

That’s our president ... for now.

So, we’ve been having a little car trouble and last week, after the Fourth, I stopped by the mechanic to make an appointment to have it checked. The shop was closed for a week-long holiday.

I told Carlos we’d have to wait until this week to take the car in and he promptly forgot all about it. So, Monday, as we were leaving for work, I said to him:

“Don’t forget I’m stopping by the mechanic today, and if they can take the car I’m going to leave it.”

Carlos said:

“I’ll make a mental note of it.”

I replied:

“The only problem with that is you write your mental notes in invisible ink.”

Thank you! I’ll be here all week!

Out there in The Dog’s Mother country, Washington State, that is, an anti-transgender measure failed to qualify for the ballot.

The failure is a victory for equality and validation of Washington’s non-discrimination laws that ensure fair and equal treatment for LGBTQ people in housing, employment, and public accommodations.

Snap. And #Resist.

So, I told you we saw Brooklyn, and part of its charm was the male lead, and love interest, Emory Cohen. His character was so sweet and kind and funny and cute that I wanted to marry him ... if I wasn’t already married.

And then we saw a new show about William Shakespeare, starring Laurie Davidson as Will. It’s an interesting show, though it could become gratingly and cloying cute and annoying, but, for now, Laurie Davidson is Eye Candy.

And then there’s Topher Grace—from That 70’s Show ... which I never watched because ... two words ... Ashton Kutcher—in the film Truth, the story about the Dan Rather scandal when he presented a piece on Sixty Minutes about George W. Bush’s rather sketchy military service ... the man never really served, but did apparently use his daddy’s wealth and power to get out of going to Vietnam. Rather and his producer were forced out of CBS after the story. Anyway, Topher Grace is very sexy ... and yeah, I can watch a movie about news and still ogle a sexy man.

In another display of the stupidity of Fox news commentators, Harris Faulkner said that Ivanka _____ deserved to be seated at the G20 because ...

“She [was] there in a capacity of someone who has run a very successful corporation and her items are selling by the way, hot online.”

Yup, because her rip-offs and knockoffs of shoes and handbags are selling, she deserves to be a part of a summit involving world leaders.

Oh, Fox News, you really, really are stupid.

Speaking of stupid ... Arkansas women may soon be forced to notify their sexual partner or family members if they want to have an abortion, thanks to a provision passed in the state's 2017 GOP-controlled legislative session.

Bad, right? But add this in ... if the man who impregnated the woman did so during the course of a rape, she would also need to notify him.

The GOP; screwing women, and women’s rights, again.

David Bancroft went to the Sand Dollar Lounge in Las Vegas recently and, well, was such a drunken mess that he was kicked out. Before leaving, as drunken messes do, he dropped several f-bombs at the staff.

Then he went home and took to Facebook to talk about getting kicked out of the bar—a straight bar—and called it a “gay bar” and said bouncers that bounced him were “fags.”

The next morning, in the light of sobriety, he deleted the post, but interwebz stuff never goes away, and so the bar’s owner, Anthony Jamison, shared Bancroft’s post and responded like this:

“Like accusing us of being a gay bar should be an insult.”

And then Jamison announced that the Sand Dollar will hold an LGBTQ party at the club on August 6 and that the profits from the party would go to the Gay & Lesbian Community Center of Southern Nevada.

“To use that platform to start blasting the community or blasting being gay is obscene, and for us to ignore it and let it go is wrong.”

Anthony Jamison also said they will name the party after Bancroft—who has since apologized for his rant—and will call it Davey’s LGBTQ Party.

Kudos Sand Dollar!

Think Before You Speak ... Tweet ... Facebook ...

My parents gave their children many lessons while we were growing up, but two of them stick out the most to me; the first was to be happy, because, in the end, that’s all you really get in life, and the second was to think before you speak … meaning, say what you will, but know what you’re saying.

I’ve tried to follow those two tenets as I navigate through life, and there are times when I am successful, and times when I fuc — make a mistake.

Jane Wood Allen, a schoolteacher, well, at one time a schoolteacher, should have learned that lesson.

See, Wood Allen took to Facebook to parade her blatant racism in a post about First Lady Michelle Obama, saying:

“This poor Gorilla. How is she going to function in the real world, by not having all of her luxurious vacations paid for anymore? She needs to focus on getting a total make-over (especially the hair), instead of planning vacations! She is a disgrace to America!”

Now look, it’s disgusting, it’s disgraceful, it’s racist … it’s Free Speech, but … Jane Wood Allen posted this on her public Facebook page which anyone can see, even her students at Chestatee Elementary School.

Yup, she teaches children. Luckily, though, the school was notified of the posts and confirmed they were related to an employee in the Forsyth County school district:

“We have and will continue to address this issue with the employee on Monday. Racism and discrimination are not tolerated in Forsyth County Schools.” — Forsyth County Schools spokeswoman Jennifer Caracciolo

But this isn’t the first time an employee in that school district has faced disciplinary action for some questionable social media behavior. Earlier this year, Lambert High School principal Gary Davison was placed on leave for sharing some Islamophobic memes on Facebook. But Lambert may have been lucky, and Wood Allen not so much. Yesterday morning Forsyth County Schools announced Monday morning that Allen had been “relieved from duty.”

Good.

Bye Felicia.

Here’s my deal: you can believe whatever you want, and you can say whatever you want, but you need to take ownership of it when it goes out into the interwebz.

I mean, you choose to say ugly things about the First Lady, go ahead and do it … in your home, in private; but when you take it online it’s out for everyone to see … especially your bosses, and even the children at the school where you used to teach.

Think before you speak, Tweet, update, Instagram, whatever … and then maybe choose not to speak, Tweet, update, Instagram, whatever.

Jane Wood Allen

Texas Teacher Calls Student A Terrorist In Class

Yesterday I posted about the Muslim family that was removed from a United Airlines flight for “safety” issues, though no one truly explained what safety issues caused the removal, and Raybeard commented:

”This sort of thing gets uglier by the day. Where will it pop up next?”

Well, it looks like it popped u next at First colony Middle School in Sugar Land, Texas, where Waleed Abushaaban is a 12-year-old honor student. But, he has, you know, one of those names and so apparently his teacher called him a terrorist in class one day.

The students were watching "Bend it Like Beckham" in class one Thursday after taking an exam and Waleed laughed at a joke in the film and his teacher said:

“I wouldn’t be laughing if I was you.”

When Waleed asked why, the teacher said it was “because we all think you’re a terrorist.”

And so naturally the jokes began about Waleed carrying bombs into school; other kids made fun of him, laughed at him, teased him. The teacher was removed from the classroom after the accusations, but now Waleed’s family wants her gone for good.

“Just because my son is a Muslim doesn’t mean he is a terrorist. He’s as American as anybody else. He was born here ... that’s all he knows is how to be an American.” —  Malek Abushaaban, Waleed’s mother

The Fort Bend school district released a statement about the accusations saying they do “not support the teacher’s actions”:

“While the teacher reports her statements were made in the context of trying to make a point about negative stereotypes, District officials do not believe that the teacher exercised the appropriate sensitivity expected of the District’s educators.”

Um, how does calling a twelve-year-old a terrorist work into a point about negative stereotypes? If he’d been Latino would she have called him a rapist and drug dealer to make her point? If Waleed was gay would it be okay for the teacher to call him a “faggot”?

This teacher needs to go; this is not teaching; this is projecting fear into a space where fear need not be. Her actions were terrorism, in  my mind, because she terrorized that young boy and she instilled fear into each and every student who may now look at Waleed Abushaaban, or anyone who looks like him, has a name like him, sounds like him, a little differently.

And, once again, since people aren't getting it:

Muslims are not terrorists; terrorists are terrorists.

NY Daily News

Lauren Brown Spoke Out And Changed A Catholic School Forever

So, Lauren Brown is a Lesbian … and a teacher. And she recently applied for a teaching position at St. Mary’s Catholic prep school in Portland, Oregon, and thought it would be the best job ever.

“I honestly visualized my entire life there during my interview.”

Of course, then she told the school officials — who had said they were “so excited that [she] will be a part of this legacy” — that she was gay, and she asked what might happen if she ever married, a woman, presumably. That’s when she was asked to come in for a second meeting and the school rescinded their offer of employment, gave her a severance package of one year’s salary and told her to get lost … oh, and to keep silent on the matter. 

The letter also asked that Brown agree not to sue and to not “disclose such terms” to anyone except family members, attorneys, and accountants and then composed this Facebook message for her own page with a little heart emoji included, saying she would not be teaching at St. Mary’s:

 “Friends, I want to let you all know that I will no longer be at St. Mary’s in the fall. Please message me if you know of any jobs available ♥."

Of course, as Catholics are apt to do, the school explained that because she said that she might one day, some day, marry, she would be in conflict with the hateful teachings of the Church — though not of Jesus or God who never had a complaint about same-sex marriage — and she had to go, and go in silence.

Sadly, Lauren Brown was not going quietly.

“To sign a contract that’s going to affect the rest of my life, and my passion for advocating for LGBT youth and LGBT people — there’s no way I could sign that. I could never live with myself."

And the news traveled far and fast. Students and alumni got wind of the decision and began protesting the decision to deny Lauren Brown a teaching job and then a weird thing happened: school officials switched their position, and announced via Facebook that they had voted unanimously to alter the school’s hiring policies to allow for LGBT employees:

“Effective immediately, St. Mary’s has added sexual orientation to its equal employment opportunity policy. St. Mary’s is a diverse community that welcomes and includes gay and lesbian students, faculty, alumnae, parents and friends, including those that are married.”

That’s the good news, the great news, the OMG WTF is going on at St. Mary’s news, but there is bad news, because shortly before changing their stance to allow gay and lesbians the chance to teach at their school the position for which Brown was hired was given to someone else.

But, Lauren brown isn’t angry; in fact, she’s overjoyed:

"The students, parents, and alumni of St. Mary’s Academy should be so proud today. This success shows that together we really can move mountains."

And the students, parents and alumni of St. Mary’s should also be grateful that Lauren Brown was not going to take that severance package and simply walk away, Speaking up for herself, and speaking out for herself, she changed that school, that Catholic school, and while she may not ever teach there, she will be remembered every single time an LGBT applicant settles down for an interview at St. Mary’s.

NCRM

Teacher Shames A Seven-Year-Old For Not Believing In God

Once again we have someone in this country that apparently does not understand what Separation of Church and State means, and has used her position as a public school teacher to berate a student about his religious beliefs.

Oh, and the student was a seven-year-old.

And so now, Forest Park Elementary School teacher Michelle Meyer is facing a First Amendment lawsuit after being accused of "interrogating the child as to his beliefs and requiring the child to sit by himself during lunch and not talk to his classmates during lunch for three days.” 

It all started when the student — called A.B. in the lawsuit —t old another student that he didn’t go to church and didn’t believe in God. Well, that student ran to Michelle Meyer and told her what she’d heard, and Meyer then asked A.B. if he went to church with his family, and if his mother knew about his beliefs.

Meyer told him she was very concerned about what he had done and that she was going to contact his mother; I guess telling a fellow student you don’t go to church requires a parent teacher conference, though, apparently, Meyer never contacted the boy’s mother.

From the lawsuit:

"[A.B] was publicly shamed and made to feel that his personal beliefs were terribly wrong. [He] came home from school on multiple occasions crying saying that he knows that everyone at school — teachers and students — hate him … The defendant’s actions caused great distress to A.B. and resulted in the child being ostracized by his peers past the three-day ‘banishment.'"

Forest Park Elementary released its own statement:

"It is clear that it is not the province of a public school to advance or inhibit religious beliefs or practices. Under the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution, this remains the inviolate province of the individual and the church of his/her choice. The rights of any minority, no matter how small, must be protected.”

What is wrong with some people? I mean, as a person who is relatively new to the South, to the Bible Belt, I have often been asked where I worship, and when I respond that I don’t go to church, I often get That Look … that disapproving look. But I’m a grown man and I can take care of myself; I can explain why I believe what I believe and that’s how I should be.

But for a teacher to shame a child, and really, what she did by ostracizing him from his classmates amounts to bullying, because he simply answered a question truthfully is just irresponsible and reprehensible. Michelle Meyer should not be teaching at a public school if her concern for a child’s religious training causes her to reprimand children who are atheist or agnostic, or just don’t go to church because their parents don’t want them in church.

Separate church and state, Michelle, or get out of teaching.

NCRM

Photo source

Can I Get An Amen: Professor Coupland Has Been Fired

I love teachers; my father was a teacher, and a darn good one if I do say so myself, and I do because this is my blog. But, one thing, of many, that I learned from my Dad is that we are all teachers; we can all educate someone, just by imparting information or opinions or ideas.

Sadly, though, there are times when I think some people should not teach, anywhere, anytime, ever, and Rick Coupland is a prime example.

Coupland, a former St. Lawrence College professor, is out of a job because of a Facebook post. 

Yes, a Facebook post. It all began when Coupland apparently posted something to Facebook — and then removed it sometime later; but, as happens with social media, there are things called screenshots, and when someone takes a screenshot of a post, and then you delete, it, they still have it. No matter how many times you try to delete it, and it disappears from your Tweet, Status Update, Instagram, whatever, if I have a screenshot, it still exists. It.Cannot.Be.Erased.

And that’s what happened when Rick Coupland shared a link to a Facebook story about a rainbow flag being raised in St. Petersburg, Florida, and added this commented:

"It's the queers they should be hanging, not the flag."

I think the minute he shared and commented, Coupland knew he was done; he tried to delete it — again, not before screen garbs were taken — and then even deleted his Facebook account, but the damage was done. It was out there.

St. Lawrence College began receiving complaint after complaint about this professor, and, well, quicker than you can say, “Asshats stay off Facebook,” Rick Coupland was fired.

Good.

And, real quickly, before anyone spouts that Freedom of Speech argument, let me say, Yes, we have Freedom of Speech, and we also have consequences when we exercise that freedom.

Freedom of Speech does not mean Freedom from Consequences. And let's not even go into his Free Speech suggested that gay people should be hanged. 

CBC

Minute Rant: Mary Kay Letourneau

So, Mary Kay Letourneau, that teacher who thought it perfectly fine to have sex with her thirteen-year-old student, that teacher who was arrested, and served two prison terms for being a sexual predator, and who is now married to the former-child-she-f**ked and is a registered Level 2 sex offdender, has surfaced from the Pedophilia Bog to tell Barbara Walters — who apparently has no idea what retirement means — that she wants to teach again and would like to get her name off that pedophile registry so she get back to teaching full-time.

Um, Mary Kay, may I call you that, or should I stick to Convicted Child Rapist? I’m not a lawyer but I’m pretty sure that even if you find some judge fool enough to remove your name from the Sexual Predator list, you’re a little too well-known as a child molester to get another teaching job.

Why don’t you sit back down, and just be quiet … forever … because if you think anyone feels sorry for you because you lost your ability to teach after having sex with an underage student, a student, you’re still riding in First Class on the Delusional Train.

Nancy Perry Should Not Be Allowed To Teach

My father was a teacher, and, in some ways, he still is, because he is constantly imparting bits of knowledge — most notably about climate change, a passionate topic to him — to friends and family, so I love a good teacher; I’ve had many in my lifetime.

Nancy Perry, however, is not a good teacher; in fact she is the worst kind of teacher imaginable and how she still has a job is beyond me.

See, Nancy teaches at Dublin Middle School in Dublin, Georgia, and one day during class she decided to teach the class a lesson in … something … by telling her students that President Obama is lying about being a Christian and that if their parents support him, they aren’t true Christians.  To add insult to religious indoctrination stupidity, she then challenged her class of middle school students to prove they were Christians.

Well, you just know one of the students took this story home to his parents, who were baffled and confused and angry that a public school teacher would impart her own, obviously limited, opinions on the president’s faith, the student’s faith, and the parent’s faith, in a classroom setting so they demanded a conference with Nancy Perry.

On the day of the scheduled meeting, though, they were surprised to find that not only was Nancy Perry at the meeting, but she’d brought along her husband, Bill, who is on the school board, and who once hosted a right-wing radio program during which he would demonize same-sex marriage and trash Democrats, including President Obama.

Which, by the way, is his right, on the radio, but is not Nancy Perry’s right, in a classroom.

During the conference, the parents got the impression that Mrs. Perry had brought along her husband to intimidate them, and became even more alarmed when the Perry’s, rather than discussing her inappropriate lesson, tried to convince them to goosestep along with their extremist views by offering them a packet of internet propaganda.

The parents then took their complaints to the school board and to the Dublin Laurens County NAACP, who called upon the school to take action against the Nancy and Bill Perry:

“This teacher has betrayed her profession. She has broken the trust from teacher to student and from teacher to parent. The harm that she has done goes beyond her classroom. It is incalculable. At the very least she has tainted the learning experience and caused divisiveness among her students, the school faculty, staff and the community. Her husband should be held accountable for his abuse of power stemming from his participation in the parent-teacher conference. He had no right to be there. His presence did nothing to enhance the process. In fact, his presence further eroded his wife’s credibility as a teacher.”

Sounds about right to me, but, apparently school administrators had a different thought and have allowed Nancy and Bill Perry to retain their positions, though Superintendent Chuck Ledbetter had this to say about the incident:

“We work to build bridges with students, not build walls, and talking politics, especially giving political opinions, can be very divisive

[…]

We’ve had meetings to make sure there is an understanding that this is not appropriate

[…]

You try to be appropriate to the situation. It’s one of those that you don’t want repeated… A board member being in a parent-teacher conference can tip the balance, or at least from the appearance, tip the balance of fairness. It is not a practice that we can allow. Her husband should be held accountable for his abuse of power stemming from his participation in the parent-teacher conference. He had no right to be there. His presence did nothing to enhance the process. In fact, his presence further eroded his wife’s credibility as a teacher.”

Am I wrong in thinking that Nancy Perry should be kicked out of school immediately? I mean, first, for bringing her own personal views into the classroom as a lesson? I mean, she has the right to her opinions, but I don’t think her opinions were part of the curriculum for middle school students.

And then, to bring her husband into the parent conference? He had no business being part of that discussion, or in sharing his little website package with them, and, in fact, inserting himself into a parent-teacher conference is a violation of school policy, so Bill Perry should be removed from the school board instantly.

The fact that they haven’t been terminated, and have really only gotten a minor slap on the wrist, only means that Nancy Perry will continue teaching students her own political and religious beliefs, and that her husband will continue to back her up.

It amazes me that these two still have jobs, and in education, no less.

sources:

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