Teacher resigns after reading students book about gay couple

[Jazzy]

After a third-grader tearfully recounted how another boy had called him "gay" during gym class, teacher Omar Currie chose to raise the issue during story time by reading his students a fable about a prince who falls in love with another prince, ending with a happily-ever-after royal wedding.

That decision in April ignited a public outcry from some parents in the rural hamlet of Efland, North Carolina, resulting in Currie's resignation this week from a job he loved. The assistant principal who loaned Currie her copy of "King & King" has also resigned, and outraged parents are pressuring administrators at the Orange County Schools to ban the book.

"When I read the story, the reaction of parents didn't come into my mind," Currie, 25, said Tuesday. "In that moment, it just seemed natural to me to read the book and have a conversation about treating people with respect. My focus then was on the child, and helping the child."

Within hours after reading the book to his students, Currie said he got a call from the school's principal requesting a meeting in her office for the following morning. The parents of three children soon filed written complaints to a school review committee, which twice upheld the use of the book after heated public meetings. But the school's principal also issued a new directive that teachers must submit an advance list of all books they intend to read with students to their parents.

"King & King" has been a subject of controversy before. In 2006, the parents of a Massachusetts second-grader sued after the book was read in their child's class. A federal judge later ruled against them, saying the rights of parents to exercise their religious and moral beliefs are not violated when children are exposed to differing ideas in public school.

In his two years at Efland elementary, Currie said his sexual orientation had never been an issue. His co-workers, and some parents, knew he lives with his male partner.

But at the committee meetings to discuss Currie's use of the book, some parents whose children were not in his class made their attacks personal, telling him he would die young and spend eternity in hell. He also began receiving hate-filled letters and emails, including one copied to other teachers at the school, described homosexuality as a "birth defect" while accusing Currie of trying to "indoctrinate" children through "psycho-emotional rape."

Though he says administrators never formally disciplined him for his decision to read the book, Currie said he was made to feel that he had done something wrong and felt pressured to leave the school. He is currently looking for another teaching job.

Do you think he did anything wrong by reading that story to the students? Why/Why not?

 

[Webster]

Do you think he did anything wrong by reading that story to the students? Why/Why not?

No, I don't think he did anything wrong...this is another case where the parents of the students in that are nothing more than thin-skinned special snowflakes...

 

[Jazzy]

I don't believe there is a so-called "gay agenda" (necessarily) but I would have taken issue with a teacher reading this type of book to a young child. I don't consider this to be an appropriate teachable moment. A parent-student conference would have been a better way to handle it. Also, at that age "gay" could mean anything to the kids, not necessarily anything sexual. Remember cooties? As you get older, you discover it refers to lice but as a kid, it's some mysterious yucky stuff you get from touching the opposite sex. We jump to conclusions so quickly. Like if a girl behaves like a tomboy or vice versa. Oh, then they must be transgender. We need to calm down.

 

[Dee]

Well, did it have sex in it? If it wasn't sexual at all in nature and just about love, I don't see the harm, even for someone as young as a 3rd grader. What's the difference between a man loving a man and a woman loving a man (in the form of a fairy tale)? I don't think there is one, but for some reason when issues of gay people come up, the ignorant and bigotted people who are "worried" for the children always ALWAYS relate it to sex. That's like saying heterosexual people don't fuck and the only thing gay people do is plough each other like bunnies.

 

[Nebulous's iconNebulous]

The assistant principal loaned Currie her copy of "King & King"

Although the book was harmless, it seems like the teacher went to a school administrator (his boss) and was given this book and was just following orders.

 

[Jazzy]

"When I read the story, the reaction of parents didn't come into my mind," Currie, 25, said Tuesday. "In that moment, it just seemed natural to me to read the book and have a conversation about treating people with respect. My focus then was on the child, and helping the child."

How did reading a story about two homosexual princes, help this child? Respect for whom? Homosexuals? Why not have a discussion about bullying and name calling? Sorry, sounds to me like he was pushing his own agenda.

 

[WHO IS SERAFIN]

If it is simply a love story with no detailed description of sex no matter what kind of couple it is I have no issues with it.

But most certainly there is a radical gay movement that wants you to except that life style or we are going to ought you and destroy your life. Just like there are these kinds of radicals for other life styles and beliefs.

 

[Dee]

How did reading a story about two homosexual princes, help this child? Respect for whom? Homosexuals? Why not have a discussion about bullying and name calling? Sorry, sounds to me like he was pushing his own agenda.

Because respect for homosexuals is important too. And downplaying the fact that being gay isn't a big deal or wrong seems to have been the avenue in which the teacher was headed.