This video has gone sort of viral over the weekend, but if you haven’t seen it, it’s worth watching. This is Graeme Taylor, and he’s only fourteen, but he seems to have quite a head on his shoulders as he speaks to his school board in Michigan in support of his teacher, Jay McDowell, who came under fire after he asked two students to leave his classroom — one was wearing a Confederate flag on his belt buckle and the other was making anti-gay remarks — for being disruptive.
Amazing 14 Year-Old Student Stands Up For Teacher in School Board Meeting
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What a well spoken young person and it thrills me to see him speak out for this teacher. We should not tolerate any bullying or exclusion of persons in the classroom or in life. Way to go Graeme Taylor!
At nine years old. That’s absolutely tragic.
Great kid. Good for him for standing up, and I hope some good comes from this.
It says something that this has gone viral and that most people at the school board meeting supported the teacher. Parents in this school district should be calling for the recall of all members of the school board for not taking a supportive stand for the safety of their children. They do not deserve the right or privilege of being called public servants or those who have the best interests of children at heart.
Bravo!
I don’t think the kids to-day are prepared to put up with the homophobic crap that some of us older gays have.
I can’t even imagine myself at that age giving such a speech. (Nor, would I have been allowed to!)
“McDowell maintains the students were being disruptive, and that “I believe any symbol or speech that can cause a student to sit in fear in the classroom whether or not there is an outward show of that fear is by its very nature a disruption to the educational process.”
But who determines what symbols are disruptive or not? There has to be action, not just a wearing a belt buckle to be disruptive.
A Confederate belt buckle worn to school is a direct threat to others and should not be tolerated any more than a student walking around verbally threatening to kill fellow classmates.
In fact the belt buckle was worn by a young woman who was asked by the teacher to remove it and she did without incident. She was not expelled. What happened then is that another student asked “Well, how is that any different than gays flying the Rainbow flag? Then the student remarked “You know, I don’t accept gays, I don’t accept gays because of my religion” at which the teacher threw him out for the day. Listening to the teacher on MSNBC it seems the student was being ignorant but not belligerent and that the teacher started the argument.
The problem is that the teacher, who later remarked on MSNBC that this student is really a good student, should have engaged him and made it a teaching moment but instead he got really upset just yelled at him.
The article above states that this was Graeme Taylor’s teacher when in fact Graeme goes to a different school in the district.
My take on this is that the teacher had the right motivation but went about it in the wrong way.
If a student said, “I don’t accept Jews” and was kicked out of class, I doubt that there would be any question.
If the student said, “I don’t accept blacks” and was kicked out of class, I doubt that there would be any question.
Now a student said, “I don’t accept gays” and was kicked out of class. Bob, why are you questioning the appropriateness of the teacheer dismissing him from the class.
John, its because Bob thinks that gays are a minority that’s acceptable to discriminate against.
Wayne, the video is no longer available.
Damn – they snagged it already. What a shame.
John, I don’t believe the student made his statement for the purpose of intentionally bullying the other students.
If he did do so then it would be proper to kick him out of class.
I read the orignal source articles and it seemed clear that the issue was that the student, a student whom the teacher liked and has a good relationship with and who was not a troublemaker, asked the question in light of the buckle incident. He then put the question in context of his beliefs. The teacher then went ballistic. The teacher violated the students First Amendment rights.
The student has a First Amendment right to not accept marriage equality and to express that in light of the fact that the teacher was making an issue of it by wearing purple in his class. I don’t agree with the student myself but the teacher was way too hostile given that they student is only 16.
John, what Priya claims is simply not true.
I might add that I do support the spirit of what this incident means and I think that Graeme Taylor’s speach was great and I understand why he takes the position he takes. He is seeing the broader context. He is an amazing young man with courage and character. But he wasn’t in that classroom and the details are important. You cannot
make judgements about specific situations involving real people based on how it appears in the big picture or how one result vs. another helps or hurts the cause- if you believe in justice.
Bob,
Do you object to dismissing a student from class for saying that he does not accept blacks, Jews, Armenians or Catholics? Simple yes or no.