A 9-Year-Old Girl Sent This Beautiful Letter To Her Teacher After He Came Out As Gay

Transcript:

Dear Mr R— 

Even though you’re gay, I will alway’s treat you the same way as I do now. I still think about you the same way as I used to. You’re a great teacher and these are just some of the word’s that I would describe you as: great, amazing, fantastic, brilliant, awesome and brave. 

The reason why I say brave, is because you shared a personal secret, which was very brave. 

You don’t have to feel scared because I know that everyone in the class feels the same way as I do. 

From A— 

x <3 x 

P.S. Mr R—, we are all proud of you.

The teacher who received the letter told the website that as a primary school teacher, “I’d always worried about mentioning my sexuality, despite the fact that my colleagues talked about their husbands, wives and significant others all the time.”

As part of an anti-bullying week, he asked his class if they’d heard “gay” being used as pejorative term, and “almost every one of my class put their hands up”. His headmaster supported his decision to tell the class he was gay, “so they at least knew one gay person and hopefully explain that when people use that word they’re talking about me”.

He added:

The reaction was fantastic – there were a lot of gasps and shocked looks and some basic questions – do you have a boyfriend, etc – but after a couple of minutes they were over it and we moved on to the rest of the lesson. 

The letter came a couple of days later. The little girl who wrote it gave it to me at the start of the day with all the other slips about dinner money, school trips and doctors appointments. 

Reading it brought tears to my eyes and it took me a little while to compose myself. When I thanked her she just shrugged and repeated something one of the boys in the class had said during the lesson, “It’s just your life”. Then she went back to her maths.

Teacher Suspended For Giving Gay Student LGBT Films “Latter Days” and “Trick”

An openly gay Toronto teacher pleaded guilty to professional misconduct this week after being accused of having an inappropriate relationship with a teen he claims was seeking advice on coming out.

Ian Handscomb, artistic director at the Claude Watson School for the Arts and faculty member since 1996, claims he maintained private Facebook communication with a 14-year-old student who was thinking of “coming out” because he believed the student sought his advice as an out gay man.

After the student moved to high school, Handscomb gave him copies of LGBT films Latter Days and Trick, which the Ontario College of Teachers considers distribution of sexually explicitly material. At an official disciplinary hearing this week, Handscomb was punished with a verbal reprimand and a 20-day suspension.

During the hearing, some of Handscomb’s private Facebook messages with the teen were revealed, including this gem:

“I saw Legally Blonde last night. I know you mentioned you were seeing it. It was cute. Some nice dancers to look at … boy, dancers have lots of muscles! Is that you are getting yours … your profile picture … haha.”

And the following month, this one:

“Hey, how come I don’t get to see you on stage in your underwear??????”

The College, which also recognized that Handscomb had failed to report being improperly propositioned by a former student years before, also found that Handscomb had driven the student to and from school alone.

Handscomb’s attorney told The Star that her client is a “role model for students questioning their sexuality,” though he “struggled” with this situation particularly.

Teacher receives unexpected email four years after coming out in school assembly

Four-years-ago David Weston made an extremely courageous decision.

In 2010 he was a teacher at Watford Grammar. During a school assembly, he took to the stage to reveal that he was gay.

If David ever had any doubts regarding the impact of his announcement, they were put to rest this week when he received an email from a former pupil.

I came out as a gay teacher in a whole-school assembly in 2010. Today, 4 years later, I just received this email. Wow pic.twitter.com/Wdgzo4n3lf
— David Weston (@informed_edu) August 12, 2014

Speaking to Metro.co.uk, David said: ‘The reason I did the assembly in the first place was as a reaction to a four-year illness with a rare liver condition which meant I needed a transplant. While I was recovering in hospital I decided I had to make a difference.’

‘Everyone at the school was so supportive and there was a positive reaction,’ he added.

The former pupil messaged David on LinkedIn after coming across his profile.

He continued: ‘I thought sharing the message might make a few people smile, but I’ve been totally blown away by the enormity of the response.

‘I know there are so many people who are champions for gay rights and for gay teachers and I know they should be getting more attention than me!’

The letter has been re-tweeted more than 3,000 times since David posted it to Twitter yesterday evening.