'School Suspends Teacher After Gay Marriage Facebook Comment'

School Suspends Teacher After Gay Marriage Facebook Comment
Student Reports Teacher's Comment

POSTED: 10:50 pm EDT August 17, 2011
UPDATED: 11:32 pm EDT August 17, 2011

::::: there's a video inside the article that I couldn't embed :::::

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Mount Dora High School teacher Jerry Buell, the 2010 teacher of the year, is awaiting a decision about whether he will return to the classroom after a controversial comment he made on Facebook led to his suspension.

According to Lake County School District officials, a former student reported a Facebook post by Buell that may have violated ethics rules when he used social media to sound off about gay marriage.

School officials confirmed to WESH 2 News that Buell posted a comment stating that he “almost threw up” over a news story about legalizing same-sex marriage and went on to write that same-sex marriage is a “cesspool.”

WESH 2 News reporter Talitha Vickers attempted to talk to Buell at his home, but he refused to comment.

Evan Holley, a Mount Dora High School alumnus, said Buell is an excellent teacher.

“Mr. Buell would never do that to offend anybody. I mean, he’s a really Christian guy and that’s his beliefs. I mean, it’s his personal Facebook,” said Holley.

The district has not made a decision about what further disciplinary action could be taken against Buell. The award-winning social studies teacher was suspended and working in a clerical position at the school district’s administration building.

Alan Smithee wrote:I don't respect what he had to say but I respect his right to say it in the forum that he did. Facebook might be a quasi-public forum but it he wasn't spouting his opinions in the classroom. That would be another matter. If the "ethics rules" of his contract specifically prohibit this, that's another matter too but people should be allowed to have opinions others don't agree with.

Impact wrote:When what he says publicly interferes with the integrity of his position, it's a punishable offense and the school board should be allowed to deal with it however they see fit. He had a right to speak his bigoted opinion, but the First Amendment doesn't protect him from not losing his job over it. Furthermore, as a Social Studies teacher, I doubt that his views about a historic, important civil rights movement aren't leaking into the classroom. And any gay child, or children with parents who are gay, are vulnerable to his "disgust."

Jerry Buell: 'I Try to Teach and Lead My Students as if Lake Co. Schools Had Hired Jesus Christ Himself'

Jerry Buell, the anti-gay teacher whose remarks about same-sex marriage on Facebook got him temporarily suspended from teaching and made him a hero to the religious right and groups like NOM, and the Liberty Counsel (which is representing him), is now under scrutiny for remarks he wrote in his class syllabus and on his school website.

WFTV reports:

In one section Buell wrote, "I am a man of God and I try to be like Jesus every day. I teach God's truth, I make very few compromises. If you believe you may have a problem with that, get your schedule changed, 'cause I ain't changing!"

Then there's a comment from Buell's website stating, "I try to teach and lead my students as if Lake Co. Schools had hired Jesus Christ himself."

Buell doesn't understand what the problem is, because he's been anti-gay been using the same syllabus for years.

"The school district is saying that might run a foul to what they call the separation of church and state," said Buell's attorney Harry Mihet. "We are going to have to evaluate the schools position and engage them in some dialogue."

The school district believes he violated the constitutional provision of separation of church and state.

This is a new controversy, separate from the Facebook one.

On Facebook, Buell had written that he "almost threw up" in response to a news story about same-sex marriage in New York. Buell also called the marriages part of a "cesspool" and said they were a sin.

Buell returned to his classroom this week.

Read more: http://www.towleroad.com/2011/08/jerry-buell-i-teach-gods-truthi-try-to-teach-and-lead-my-students-as-if-lake-co-schools-had-hired-je.html#ixzz1W8jqq5xM

Alan Smithee wrote:I don't respect what he had to say but I respect his right to say it in the forum that he did.