View Full Version : Boy Punished for Talking About Gay Mom
kimpossible
12-02-2003, 09:50 AM
Louisiana School Punishes 7-Year-Old Boy
LAFAYETTE, La. - A 7-year-old boy was scolded and forced to write "I will never use the word `gay' in school again" after he told a classmate about his lesbian mother, the American Civil Liberties Union (news - web sites) alleged Monday.
Second-grader Marcus McLaurin was waiting for recess Nov. 11 at Ernest Gallet Elementary School when a classmate asked about Marcus' mother and father, the ACLU said in a complaint.
Marcus responded he had two mothers because his mother is gay. When the other child asked for explanation, Marcus told him: "Gay is when a girl likes another girl," according to the complaint.
A teacher who heard the remark scolded Marcus, telling him "gay" was a "bad word" and sending him to the principal's office. The following week, Marcus had to come to school early and repeatedly write: "I will never use the word `gay' in school again."
A phone message left for Lafayette Parish schools superintendent James Easton was not immediately returned.
The ACLU is demanding the case be removed from Marcus' file and that the school apologize to the boy and his mother, Sharon Huff.
"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."
kimpossible
12-02-2003, 09:50 AM
Move to Rant if more appropriate.
ellsworth81
12-02-2003, 09:54 AM
Move to Rant if more appropriate.
i found this story amusing. so amusing because that level of stupidity/ignorance is still around. ppl need to get with the times.
That poor kid. Just a reminder of how much more work needs to be done in this country to eliminate bigotry and ignorance.
oh my god... these people need to remove their heads where the sun don't shine!
it's one thing for this teacher to have her own 'oppinions' on this matter. it's another to resort to punishing a child over her own subjective, albeit irrational, beliefs.
in all honesty, i hope she gets fired for this.
SunWuKong
12-02-2003, 11:02 AM
uhh... they don't want him to use the word "gay" again... so they make him write it over and over... fucking ironic, i tell you.
rice cracker
12-02-2003, 11:47 AM
That school is either a little too PC or a lot too ignorant. It's hard to tell. Kind of like how some people seem to feel that "Black" is a bad word and go out of their way to avoid using it.
teaz0r
12-02-2003, 01:09 PM
i feel sorry for the kid,
he's probably all confused
now.
kimpossible
12-02-2003, 01:58 PM
Reading the article made me immediately wonder where the school officials get off labeling the kid's family as dirty and assigning a negative mark to his academic record for talking innocently explaining his family structure.
Emperor_Mike
12-03-2003, 11:26 AM
This is terrible. What does this teach children? This is one of the reasons why some kids grow up to be closedminded adults and for this precise reason the spectre of hate will never be fully banished.
That school is either a little too PC or a lot too ignorant. It's hard to tell. Kind of like how some people seem to feel that "Black" is a bad word and go out of their way to avoid using it.
i'm thinking ignorant. not to stereotype/generalize (but i guess i'm doing precisely that), but when i saw that this happened in louisiana, i wasn't surprised. no offense to southerners here.
wait, "gay" un-PC?
rice cracker
12-03-2003, 02:06 PM
i'm thinking ignorant. not to stereotype/generalize (but i guess i'm doing precisely that), but when i saw that this happened in louisiana, i wasn't surprised. no offense to southerners here.
wait, "gay" un-PC?
Well, if I wanted to be super correct I would say "Alternative lifestyle." *shrugs* PC is in the eye of the beholder. I'm more inclined towards thinking the school offical was just ignorant now that I've thought about it.
ChinaLama
12-04-2003, 07:27 AM
well, if i'm being too naive-- i think the teacher just misunderstood. Most of the time when little kids use "gay," they don't mean it as "homosexual" in a neutral way. They mean "gay" as in "ghey." So maybe the teacher just wanted to stop the kid from using homophobic language but didn't realize he was just making a straightforward statement of his own family.
rice cracker
12-04-2003, 10:29 AM
well, if i'm being too naive-- i think the teacher just misunderstood. Most of the time when little kids use "gay," they don't mean it as "homosexual" in a neutral way. They mean "gay" as in "ghey." So maybe the teacher just wanted to stop the kid from using homophobic language but didn't realize he was just making a straightforward statement of his own family.
I see what you're saying, but from the article it looks like he was actually explaining his mother's orientation, "Gay is when a girl likes another girl." Not something like, "Your shoes are so gay." I guess the gray area comes in when you think about what part of the boy's statement the teacher actually heard. Did she hear the whole thing, or just the word, "Gay?" Or does the teacher feel that homosexuality is a sin, therefore any mention of an alternative lifestyle is anathema and must be punished?
ChinaLama
12-04-2003, 03:26 PM
Yeah, I think the teacher may have only heard the word "gay" and just assumed the worst.
Yeah, I think the teacher may have only heard the word "gay" and just assumed the worst.
but why didn't she take the time to talk to the kid? he would have just repeated what he was explaining to his schoolmate. and none of this drama would have gone down. assuming that the teacher is not offended by gay people to begin with.
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