October 9, 2020
Missouri Teacher's Anti-Marriage Tweet Slammed as Homophobic by Students
Kilian Melloy READ TIME: 2 MIN.
Students and parents slammed a homophobic a tweet by a Missouri high school teacher that wrote the law "never should have allowed gay marriage to start with," reports local news channel Fox2Now.
The tweet was in response to another comment about marriage equality, the news channel reported, and went on to say: "Marriage is between man and woman, plain and simple."
Though the teacher in question - a member of the Fort Zumalt North High School faculty - is still working at the school, the superintendent of the school district, Dr. Bernard Dubray, said that the teacher - who was not identified in media reports - had erred in commenting on an online space that could be viewed publicly.
"It was a personal opinion that was put on his Twitter that was not privatized, which was dead wrong," Dubray told Fox2Now. "We want our kids to feel safe."
The report said that school officials were responding to individual parents and students who have reached out with their concerns. The principal has also had some meetings about the tweet.
The teacher has made their Twitter account private, but, news sources said, screenshots of the tweet are still circulating.
The teacher followed up on Twitter that read:
"I made a post earlier that was apparently insensitive to many and hurtful. We all make mistakes and mine was public. I apologize to anyone that was offended."
The tweet continued: "In reading responses, I am deeply regretful of hurting anyone's feelings."
Another local news outlet, KMOV, reached out to students and parents for their reactions, including an alumna of the high school, Caitlin Bush, who started an online petition to remove the teacher from the school's faculty.
"Part of a teacher's job is to keep students safe, to create a safe space at school especially for students who don't have that safe space at home," Bush told KMOV. "If you cannot love and accept all of your students, you shouldn't be teaching."
Watch the Fox2Now news clip about the incident below.
Kilian Melloy serves as EDGE Media Network's Associate Arts Editor and Staff Contributor. His professional memberships include the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association, the Boston Online Film Critics Association, The Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association, and the Boston Theater Critics Association's Elliot Norton Awards Committee.
