Just before Thanksgiving, when a fifth-grade boy in Utah shared in class that he was thankful he was going to be adopted by his two dads, the substitute teacher went on a 10-minute tirade against “homosexuality.” She has now been fired.
It’s an appalling story. The class at Deerfield Elementary School in Cedar Hills had been doing a pre-Thanksgiving activity where each student talked about something they were thankful for. When the boy spoke about his upcoming adoption, the substitute asked, “Why on earth would you be happy about that?” and continued her homophobic remarks for 10 minutes, reports the Salt Lake City Tribune.
Three girls in the class, to their credit, asked her several times to stop and then went to get the principal, said one of the dads, Louis van Amstel, on Twitter. The Tribune later reported, “He and his husband, Josh van Amstel, said their son has had two failed adoptions before and was worried that he might not be adopted this month because of the substitute’s comments.” How utterly horrible of the teacher.
The school confirmed the incident with “multiple students,” and the staffing company that hired her has now fired her after an investigation. Kudos to them for taking immediate action before the teacher could cause harm to any more students. Van Amstel said on Twitter that he is “so proud” of the school for how they handled the situation.
The Tribune notes that while substitutes go through “extensive training,” “it’s unclear if any of that directly deals with diversity or sensitivity.” While such training might not solve every such problem, it certainly couldn’t hurt. Let’s hope they make this a priority.