Teacher Fired After Telling Fifth Grader Not to be Thankful for Having Two Dads
We marveled at the innocence last week. As our daughter in law climbed a ladder to hang Christmas lights, 5-year-old Charleigh told her, "Be careful, Mom, I don't want you to get hurt. Some kids in my class have two moms but I only have one."
There are several scenarios in which a child could have more than one mom or more than one dad. But at this stage in her young life, our little Charleigh-girl hasn't had much exposure to the backstories behind non-traditional families -- and for that matter doesn't know the meaning of the term or of any of the baggage that can be associated with it.
If we could just go back to having the sensibilities of a kindergartner ...
A substitute teacher in Utah has been fired after berating a fifth-grade student for saying he was thankful for having two dads.
The woman, who was filling in for a teacher at Deerfield Elementary School in Utah County, asked students what they were thankful for as they approached the Thanksgiving holiday.
Food, pets, and time off from school were some of the answers given, but one student seemed to provoke the teacher when he gave thanks for something more meaningful.
“I’m thankful that I’m finally going to be adopted by my two dads,” the student told the class.
School administrators interviewed several students in the class in order to piece together what followed.
"Why on earth would you be happy about that?” she responded. And then went on to lecture the class that homosexuality is wrong and that two men living together is a sin. She then told the boy, "That's nothing to be thankful for."
Several girls tried to silence the teacher, before going to the school's principal for help. The teacher was then escorted out of the building.
One of the boy's fathers, Louis van Amsted (who you may recognize as a former dancer on 'Dancing with the Stars') told the Sault Lake Tribune that the encounter was discouraging.
“It’s absolutely ridiculous and horrible what she did,” he said. “We were livid. It’s 2019 and this is a public school.”
I wish our granddaughter's innocence and naïveté were contagious.