Teacher Threatened With Firing Over Disciplining Students Who Used Gay Slurs To Keep Job

[romantico]

Posted: 5/24/07 at 3:19pm

Man, I would have been thrown in jail if these little SH*TS did this to me!


Teacher Threatened With Firing Over Disciplining Students Who Used Gay Slurs To Keep Job
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff

Posted: May 24, 2007 - 3:00 pm ET

(West Milford, New Jersey) For teacher Cheryl Bachmann there was no question of what to do when two students in separate instances used gay slurs in her classroom.

Both, a boy and a girl, were sent to detention.

On the way out of her classroom at West Milford High School the boy hit her in the head with a rolled-up gum wrapper. Later, the girl was heard threatening to kill her.

But Bachmann, who had previously received good performance reviews suddenly found herself in danger of losing her job. She had been recommended for tenure but that was suddenly withdrawn.

School administrators accused her of poor class management skills and recommended she not be tenured. That would mean at the end of the school year she would be without a job.

With the help of Lambda Legal she appealed. Students at the school also became involved.

About 200 walked out and at a school board meeting earlier this month hundreds of people showed up to show their support. Students, parents and fellow teachers called Backmann a role model and said that the board should be supporting her and other teachers coping with disorderly students.

Several speakers referred to the Virginia Tech shootings, saying Bachmann's actions may have prevented an incident that could have escalated over time.

"More teachers should be doing what she did," said teacher Sean Cosgrove.

"Schools have a responsibility to create a harassment-free learning environment and Cheryl Bachman was trying to fulfill that responsibility by disciplining a student for using threatening language --- now she is in danger of losing her job," said Hayley Gorenberg, Deputy Legal Director at Lambda Legal.

"Denying Ms. Bachman tenure for protecting her students from harassment would be reckless example for the West Milford Board of Educations to set."

Wednesday night, at a board meeting that dragged on close to midnight, the school trustees voted 5-4 to offer Bachmann tenure.

"I want to make sure students are safe in the classroom," said Board President Midge Touw.

"Our board doesn't take lightly that a teacher was threatened


http://www.365gay.com/Newscon07/05/052407teacher.htm

Updated On: 5/24/07 at 03:19 PM

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 5/24/07 at 3:21pm

PROOF that the world is going to hell in a hand basket.

[romantico]

Posted: 5/24/07 at 3:28pm

Remember back in the good old days when a student misbehaved the teacher would disciplined him or her the way they saw fit? Now the teachers MUST answer for their actions before a committee. If its racial or mocking a religion thats alot more serious but a gay slur is something to be dismissed. Gay slurs are no big deal to alot of people.

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 5/24/07 at 3:54pm

Good for the community for standing up for her.

[Elphaba]

Posted: 5/24/07 at 4:14pm

my God, this is crazy.....you don't mess with a good teacher, and she did nothing wrong.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 5/24/07 at 4:47pm

And folks, say what you will about Jersey (where I've lived ambivalently 4 years), it's a blue state. Can you imagine this in Iowa? In saner parts of NJ's defense ... In my community, fairly close to NYC, students in middle school are suspended for the FIRST OFFENSE if they use a gay slur. There is a zero tolerence policy, and I think it's terrific. And the high school has a gay/straight association. Though "gay" is still tossed around pejoratively, it's uncool to be homophobic, to a point. That's the only hope I cling to -- that the generation born in the late 80s/early 90s, even in Republican households, are not going to see gay rights or gay people as their parents are.

Updated On: 5/24/07 at 04:47 PM

[Unknown User]

Posted: 5/24/07 at 4:49pm

Forget calling the teacher a name-- the boy threw garbage at her and HIT her in the head and the girl threatened to KILL her? Either of those would have gotten a kid expelled when I was in school 25 years ago....

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 5/24/07 at 6:13pm

I'm still confused as to why the board wanted to take away her tenure. The students were unruly, threw things at her, and threatened her life, and the board wants to punish the teacher? It doesn't add up.