Bullying: Teachers are supposed to help students, but picking WHICH students to help is apparently a grey area for one teacher.

So far the poll on my blog says that people want to hear about other news. One of the news items today that caught my attention was a story out of Washington State about a video that surfaced of a middle school boy getting bullied for being gay and the teacher helping bully him. After that he went home and told his mom that he wanted to die. Here is the link if you want to read the news story before I weigh in: Bellingham Herald Story.

So. Two things.

First thing: Here's the deal with bullying people: it's not okay. Ever. I don't care if you don't agree with what someone else thinks, who they are, what they believe in, who they vote for, what they wear, who they like, etc. They still have the right to be themselves without being told it's wrong, just like you do. If a group of gay guys started making fun of and bullying a straight guy for being straight, that wouldn't be okay, and I'm pretty sure that all straight people reading this can agree that they would feel upset if their sexual orientation was made fun of or said to be weak or stupid or anything else. So why do some people think it's okay to bully gay people??! It's making fun of who they intrinsically are as people and it's not okay.

*Sidenote: I am mostly just talking about bullying people because of their sexual orientation, but obviously there are other "reasons" people bully. I don't want anyone to think I am minimizing those reasons. This is the one that is highlighted in this story, so it's the one I'm focusing on. Reiteration: It's not okay to bully anyone ever for any reason.

Second thing: A teacher was in on it?! Are you kidding me?! As someone with a teaching degree who is the daughter of two teachers, the sister of three teachers, and the fiancée of a teacher, I am pretty much 1,000% sure that you can't bully kids and you lose your job if you do. (Yes, that's 1,000%. I know it doesn't really exist. I was making a point.)

Now. That teacher was suspended. What? You think that's a typo and I meant to say "FIRED"? Nope. He got a 10-day suspension without pay. That's it. BECAUSE, according to this website they can't fire him because of tenure issues.

Also, apparently this happened on February 2, 2012? Why are we just hearing about it now?!

What do you think about all this? Is it okay to let teachers keep teaching even though they have driven students to being suicidal? What should happen to this teacher? Please leave comments!

If you or anyone you know is in need of help, I have found the following websites to be useful. Please help. Don't let this kind of stuff keep happening.

ItGetsBetter.org
PFLAG
GLBT National Help Center
StopBullying.gov

"Be the change you wish to see in the world." --Gandhi