Comments

1

Always using the christian god as a scapegoat too.

"Hey, I'm totes cool with the gays... I even have gay friends!... But the god I chose to worship really hates the gays so, you know, what can I do?"

3

They deserve to be fired, but can they also be prosecuted? Doesn't the law require adults to report abuse of minors for investigation if they have any reason to suspect the possibility of abuse? Reasonable suspicion is the standard, like if a student shows up with a bruise on their face; it doesn't have to be something you have irrefutable evidence for.

4

So if they looked the other way, they could be guilty of failure to report, and if they told the student she was going to hell then they should also the guilty of abuse.

5

When I was in HS, I got shoved by a teacher - an unambiguous "let's fucking fight" shove. I had opened the (locked) classroom door to let a late student in. I went to the principal. She said "So, you disobeyed the teacher?".

That was the end of that.

6

Oh yeah, sportlandia, that sounds like discrimination pure and simple....... WTF?

7

@3 seatackled: I agree. North Bend, Oregon High School Principal Bill Lucero and school resource counselor Jason Griggs deserve to be fired and criminally prosecuted. Amen to ACLU for stepping in to provide legal support for Liz, Hailey, and others in the LGBTQ community who might otherwise remain voiceless. Abuse is ugly, bullying is ugly (I, too, was bullied horribly in a rural public school, and the attitude there was 'What are you going to do about it?'). NOBODY should ever have to go through that.

Dan, I'm really sorry to hear about what Terry went through in high school. To be the recipient of undue bullying is inexcusably horrible, made worse when school officials accept it as the norm.

8

North Bend is way back of beyond. Poor, insular, racist, sexist, you name it. I'm glad Liz and Hailey got these two fired. It was never ok to behave like this and it's not ok now.

9

If it is prosecutable and the district attorney won't press charges then I think the students probably could if they want to go through with it.

10

@6 - It's not discrimination, but it IS abuse by a staff member of a student, and the principal clearly supported that abuse. The point of the story is, obviously, that students who are undermined by administration can legitimately feel that they have no recourse whatsoever.

In point of fact, Sportlandia could have reported the teacher to the district - but /some/ adult (parent, another teacher, district supervisor), somewhere, would have needed to have their back because without that, no child is going to pursue their own rights. They are too used to being under authority to be able to challenge it effectively. That's why "rebellious" children so often engage in self-harming behavior: because they literally don't know what else to do.

11

Isn't it terrific (/s) to see how - for many fundamentalists - "religious freedom" means they can be filled with gleeful spite as they tell people, especially younger ones, that they're going to hell.

That's the only freedom that concerns them. Well, that and refusing services.

12

Neanderthals, non evolved humans.

13

These school officials demonstrate the depths to which some people have sunk due to the influence of the human wrecking ball in the White House and the bigoted, homophobic people he surrounds himself to ensure his base continues to worship him. Thank the Great Spaghetti Monster that the ACLU was able to step in and get justice served to the bigots and a reminder to the school system that students have the right to go to school and expect not to be bullied by the very adults that are supposed to be there to tand up for them.

14

@6 I'm pointing out that the way schools work doesn't require discrimination in order to repressive or shut down complaints. Tall ants and short ants get crushed by a boot just the same.

15

Preventing administrators and teachers from behaving this way is one of the reasons I ran for (and won!) a seat on my local school board.


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