Teacher Sues Gay Mom Over Classroom Discipline Charge

damien

http://www.365gay.com/newscon04/12/120104schoolSuit.htm

(Lafayette, Louisiana) A lesbian mother who alleges her son was reprimanded and forced to repeatedly write “I will never use the word ‘gay’ in school again” is being sued by the boy's teacher.

Ernest Gallet Elementary School teacher Terry L. Bethea is seeking $50,000 damages for defamation.

Last year Sharon Huff charged that Bethea had scolded her 7 year old son in front of his classmates and sent to a school behavioral clinic for answering another child’s questions about his lesbian mothers. (story)

Huff said the incident began when her son, Marcus McLaurin, was waiting in line to go to recess when a classmate asked him about his mother and father. He responded that he didn’t have a mother and father; instead he has two mothers. When the other child asked why, Marcus told him that it was because his mother is gay. The other child then asked what that meant, and Marcus explained, “Gay is when a girl likes another girl.”

Huff said that Marcus’s teacher scolded him in front of his classmates, telling him that “gay” is a bad word and he should never say it at school, then sent him to the principal’s office instead of letting him go to recess.

The following week the school required Marcus to attend a special behavioral clinic at 6:45 in the morning, where he was forced to repeatedly write “I will never use the word ‘gay’ in school again.”

On a student behavior contract form that Marcus had to fill out and give to his mother about the incident, Marcus wrote that the thing he did wrong was that he “sed bad wurds.”

An investigation carried out by the school board that according to Huff was little more than a whitewash, found that the Bethea had done nothing wrong.

"The child was not singled out because his parent is gay." Easton said the grade two student was disciplined for behavior problems," Superintendent James Easton said. (story)

Huff has threatened to sue the board for discrimination, and is represented by the ACLU.

This week, Bethea moved first, serving Huff with a lawsuit accusing Huff of defaming her..

The suit names Huff, ACLU representative Chris Hampton, ACLU attorney Ken Choe and Joe Cook, a New Orleans ACLU official.

In court papers Bethea accuses Huff of lying.

Earlier story:
http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/South/12/01/gay.mother.ap/index.html

"I was concerned when the assistant principal called and told me my son had said a word so bad that he didn't want to repeat it over the phone," Huff said. "But that was nothing compared to the shock I felt when my little boy came home and told me that his teacher had told him his family is a dirty word."

You can view the pic here: http://tinypic.com/view.html?pic=uydzl

Stark

I was thinking to myself "okay, the child could have been telling stories. It's good to hear that teachers have protection against false claims these days". But then I saw the picture. How could the courts not accept that as proof of the mother's side of the story?

ixoy

Stark wrote:

How could the courts not accept that as proof of the mother's side of the story?

Because it's Louisiana and the homosexual agenda must be stopped...

fozzle

Oh for crying out loud! It's attitudes like that teacher's that keep "gay" alive as an insult. She may (or may not) have thought that she was being PC, but the young lad obviously had no idea there' were negative conotations, he certainly wasn't using the word in a bad context. If she hadn't pointed out that it's a "bad word" then he wouldn't have seen it as such. From this I assume that he hadn't previously been hassled by other kids for having "two mothers", so the only person involved who actually has a problem with his use of the word is the teacher herself! Talk about nurturing predjudice, now his whole class are going to see it as something bad or wrong.

Sorry if that is a bit rambling

Stark

No, it's bang on.

Boston

American Culture towards the whole thing is rather bizzare, they don't like to talk about it, it's all "tolerance with conditions," rather then acceptance.

RuggieBear

are you sure this is for real....what teacher would let a child rite lik dat on a skool note going back to the parents