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crossposted on Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters
An incident took place recently in Illinois where a gay high school student complained that a teacher used an anti-gay slur in class:
Geneva School Board members voted Tuesday night to issue a warning against a Geneva High School teacher, who a student claimed made a homosexual slur in his classroom last week.
The notice against teacher David Burk states that any further improprieties could result in dismissal.
Geneva High School senior Jordan Hunter, who is gay and said he was personally offended by the remark, did not think the board's action went far enough. He believed Burk should have been fired.
“I'm just disappointed,” Hunter said. “I'm shocked, really. This is not an acceptable end result.”
According to Hunter, Burk said during a classroom lecture on Oct. 5, “How do you feel about your tax dollars being spent to fund black [homosexual slur] taking pictures of other black [homosexual slur] in New York?”
To the folks at Free Republic, the teacher is the real victim here.
Yeah, I know it's Free Republic and I know their history of being ugly (i.e. the meanspirited comments about President Obama's daughter, Malia), but still some things need to be put out there as a reminder of just how rude some folks are.
The site even posted a picture of the student so that the post respondees can make fun of him.
And they do unload on him:
Can’t say black anything nowadays. Proof they want thought police and speech police ONLY if it is against the right. Let me guess…he said FAG…oh the horror. Its better than the vulgarity spewed out by “fags” in churches in California. The homosexual worshiping left wanst “Fag” on par with the N word and the F word and more…they know its power.
How dare he offend the left’s great “Rectal god”!
Well. At least he looks the part. (Editor's note – yes the comment is talking about the student)
Not his mom, the mom of a “friend.” Poor little nerd, he is always going to be unhappy and be blaming it on the people who “hate gays.”
Conspicuously absent are Jordan’s parents!! Jordan needs to develop a thicker skin. He’s in for a rude awakening in the real world.
To me, in the photo provided, Jordan Hunter looks uncomfortable with himself. It is as if he knows that homosexual acts are acts of grave depravity, and are contrary to natural law. He knows that under no circumstances can they be approved. We do not know whether he chose his homosexual condition; because for most it is a trial. Unjust discrimination must be avoided. Jordan, and others in his condition, are called to fulfill God’s will in their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord’s Cross the difficulties they may encounter. Basically they are called to chastity. No sane person can be comfortable with people that statistically carry high risks of sexually transmitted diseases, HIV, AIDS, depraved and unnatural acts, and, as a group, a statistically significant shorter lifespan. How can anyone with common sense pretend that this is normal and acceptable? The teacher has already experienced more than enough punishment, IMO.
Poofer gets the vapors… tears @ 11.
Geneva High School senior Jordan Hunter, who is gay and said he was personally offended by the remark. Too bad. You made a choice that is going to haunt you for the rest of your life. Better get used to being offended and worse.. Once you decide to live a lifestyle of perversion and disease you have to accept the consequences that go along with that.
Oh and by the way. NO ONE has any rights never to be offended. Can’t find that clause in the Constituion anywhere……..
These words were inappropriate, and I am truly sorry for my actions,” the apology stated. “The message I conveyed was insensitive and hurtful. That is not what I had intended.” Grow a spine Mr Burk You made the comment and frankly there was nothing wrong with it. Tired of everyone being offended by everything. What a bunch of sheep…
Musn’t offend the Fudgepackers. Especially not the Black fudgepackers.
Talk about someone in serious need of a butt kicking. I’m sure that Jordan’s Rest Stop Bathroom Buddies will take care of that.
You gotta love those “defenders of American values” who feel compelled to verbally attack a high school student for daring to defend himself.
So I guess the Freepers think that Hunter (and by extension, all of us lgbts) should be like that self-hating gay character in the play Boys in the Band – the one who after collapsing in the arms of his lover/friend says “If only we could learn to hate ourselves a little bit less”
Someone should tell these folks that the gay of the self-hating lgbt is headed for a slow, but well-deserved and painful death.
What Hunter did was correct and it signals something that I rather like.
Lgbt children should not be subjected to this sort of nonsense. Many of us who are adults (that means intellectual-wise as well as age-wise) know this.
The trick is making sure that lgbt children are also aware of this and making sure that they stand up for themselves when situations like this occur.
So continue to stand up for yourself, Hunter. And don't let the outcome bother you. When you stood up for yourself, you also stood up for millions of lgbt children.
You have more people on your side than against you.
Also, I would be remiss not to mention this incident more than validates the work done by people like Kevin Jennings.
18 Comments
This is a serious breach of school privacy lawWhat kind of world are we coming to where a high school student can be bullied by the entire world, for life?
None of this information should have been made public.
Internet footprints. Condemning people to unemployment and ridicule since 1990.
Freepers might like him better…… if he defended his rights with a gun?
Going to the authorities… that’s for wusses. Chuck Norris would just spin-kick the teacher into next Tuesday.
<rolls eyes>
That principal and teacher better hope no bashers attack this young manThere should have been privacy protecting who made the complaint. The Illinois board of Education need to intervene that this principal obviously isn’t doing his job.
The teacher should have been dismissed, and the young man protected. This makes me FURIOUS, the young man did as we recommend, to report this kinda sh*t, and HE’S PUT IN DANGER!What ever reporter printed his name should also be held responsible for his safety. Lambda Legal go into this district and KICK A$$!
I emailed the Chicago tribune reporter who had this storyNot only was the student named his photo was shown. NEITHER the principal’s nor teacher’s photo was shown.
“Why was this student named?
The student did what we recommend to report this crud, and now you have endangered him to gay bashers.
This teacher should have been dismissed, and if the principal wouldn’t do his job, the School Board or IL Board of Education should intervene and fire BOTH. Where is the zero tollerance for Hate Speech in this school? Would a student saying the exact same slurs be expelled? I find it telling this teacher censored his speech and didn’t use a racial slur, but felt perfectly confident he could say FAG, and not be fired. He was right.”
Tribune doesn’t have editorial policyprotecting the identity of minors?
he’s a senior, maybe he’s 18
I wondered about this, too, Petey……perhaps it’s time to revisit the law that protects minors from public exposure and re-word it to include current high school students under the age of 21.
Probably wouldn’t get off the ground though… it makes sense.
This is not a breach of any law, periodThe fact that you are a high school student does NOT give you any legal right to claim that your picture can’t be posted on a blog! Good grief!
Do you seriously think anybody is going to try to compel them (legally) to take the picture down???
I would love to see the ACLU trying to untangle the knot it would get itself into over that one!
The issue is not “editorial policy”The issue is the law, if there is one.
This person is not endangered in any way by being outed here,
and even if he is, that is the problem OF THE WOULD-BE BASHERS, from a legal standpoint, NOT OUR problem.
I live in a considerably more conservative state than the one where this happened and we have high school students attending pride marches and marching publicly with their schools’ GSA chapters.
LGBT issues ARE NOT PRIVACY issues!
Our battle is about what you CAN bring into
THE PUBLIC sphere!!
Some LGBT issues are privacy issuesEven if this teacher had spewed some non gay Hate Speech, I’d still want the student who reported it kept confidential.
Calm down, y’all.The lad wanted publicity and he is getting it. The Trib (and other papers) would not have published his name and picture if his side had not contacted the papers first in order to get their story out. And good for all of them, I say.
The young man also voiced his intention to attend the public board meeting where the teacher’s case was to be brought up. He was hardly in hiding, nor wished to be.
And, as always, my opinion on posting comments from Freeper-type sites is, “why do you bring that excrement over here?”
If you think Free Republic is bad…check out the comments at Yahoo Buzz on gay related stories, or any story for that matter. I literally had to pick my jaw up off the floor. I’ve never seen such a disgusting level of human indecency.
No, Illinois has tenure for teachersHe could very well be a mediocre teacher. They are unionized (and I favor unions) and with a masters degree and his length of service, his salary is not out of line with teachers in other districts in the Chicago area.
However, it does point to a problem with the system. This is obviously one bad apple that needs to be reassigned to a desk job, if they can’t terminate him.
A remark like this might well have slipped by with no questions asked 28 years ago. He may be totally clueless that times have changed.
Scary huh?
HypocritesIf anyone called one of those freepers a fa**ot to his face, I bet they would be angry enough to start a fight.
The reason why we need to be abreast of sites like Free RepublicIt is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles; if you do not know your enemies but do know yourself, you will win one and lose one; if you do not know your enemies nor yourself, you will be imperiled in every single battle.
The Art of War
Sun Tzu
Jordan Hunter is actually a bit of a hero for speaking his mind. And the good news is that there are a lot more out there like him. There are over 3,000 GSA/GLSEN chapters in high schools across the country and it’s a rare college that doesn’t have a GLBT group.
The new generation coming into the trenches is going to kick ass.
David Burk should lose his job and his pension.
All well and good in Sun Tzu’s time when word travelled at the speed ofyour fleetest-of-foot messenger.
A better bromide for these times might be, “seen one, seen ‘em all.”
Keep your friends close and your enemies closerI keep an eye on some very unsavoury sites, because they deserve watching. Researching through foul racist, anti semetic sites isn’t cuz I enjoy that filth,, I don’t want to be suprised by any of their attacks.