High school teacher suspended after assigning an article on homosexuality in animals

lizjmeyer's picture
Posted Fri, 10/30/2009 - 14:32 by lizjmeyer

Yesterday, Mr. Delong, a 10th and 12th grade Honors English teacher in Piasa, IL was suspended for assigning an article about homosexuality in the animal kingdom to his students. You can read the full article here. The local paper reporting this story quoted the teacher saying, "I have been suspended, but not without pay," Delong, of Carlinville, said Wednesday. "But I would rather not comment further until I speak with my union representative." In true student-activism fashion, a Facebook group has been created to show support and share information about this situation.

Mr. Delong is reportedly a married, heterosexual teacher who identifies as an ally of the GLBTQ community and clearly has the respect and admiration of his students. This is just one of many examples of how teachers are taught to be conservative and non-controversial and why GLBTQ youth don't feel safe in schools.  If a school district considers teaching with a scientific article written by a professor at Stanford University and published in a popular science magazine as controversial and worthy of suspension - then how can we convince other educators to stand up and teach critically?!?! This is just crazy. I could go on, but for now I just wanted to share this information so it can spread and we can show our support to this 'radical' teacher.

Thanks to the Wicked Gay Blog for sharing this information.

P.S. I did have more to say. It is posted here: Psychology Today: Gender and schooling blog

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plthom3's picture

Class discussion

by plthom3 - 11/03/2009 - 07:25

Thank you for this post. . .I used this as the basis for a class discussion in my intro education course. . .My college sits in the Deep South where much is NOT discussed in the schools and the conservative community is often used as an excuse for such silences. . .paul thomas

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