http://www.onenewsnow.com/Education/Default.aspx?id=1236556A school district in Michigan doesn't plan to reverse a teacher's one-day unpaid suspension for kicking a student out of class because the boy said he didn't "accept gays."
Gay pride flagIt all started on October 20 at Howell High School, about 60 miles northwest of Detroit, when teacher Jay McDowell told a student in his classroom to remove a belt buckle with the Confederate Flag. She complied, but it prompted a question from the boy about how the flag differs from the "gay pride" symbol of the rainbow flag
According to McDowell, that is when the student made his statement: "I don't accept gays. It's against my religion." The teacher then sent the boy out of the room for a one-day class suspension.
Howell schools superintendent Ronald Wilson said in a release Wednesday that McDowell, who reportedly was wearing a T-shirt bearing an "anti-gay bullying" message, violated the student's right to free speech. Wilson says the high school instructor also "violated board policy" in dismissing the student "who disagreed with him."
Wendy WrightWendy Wright, president of Concerned Women for America, notices the irony in the teacher's action. "He did it under the guise of promoting tolerance and trying to end bullying," she points out.
McDowell is the intolerant one in this situation, according to Wright. "He's teaching or training students that it's fine to bully people if they don't agree with homosexuality," she remarks.