One of the best scenes of GLEE ever that no one is talking about! #GLEE #Trans #Equality #LGBT

Wow, just wow. I watched this weeks episode of GLEE and it respectfully deals with the topic of a faculty member going through a transition from female to male. Overall, I feel it was so well done and the scene above moved me to tears.

This is what Billboard.com had to say about it: "Glee gets knocked around a lot for being totally ridiculous a lot of the time, but the show is then also capable of pulling something like this: A transgender chorus of 300, led by a happily returning Unique, to sing the powerful Hairspray ballad about overcoming the odds and dreaming of a better tomorrow, all for a tearful and overwhelmed Coach Beiste. It was pretty special, and a great way to close out the hour."

This Teacher Gave His Students The Most Meaningful Assignment Of Their Lives

Bruce Farber asks his students to write letters to their future selves — and holds on to them for 20 years.

For decades, Mr. Farrer has been keeping track of the letters his students write to their future selves. Twenty years later, he manages to track them down, all over the world, and sends the letters.

The video is part of WestJet’s “above and beyond” campaign.

As assigned by Mr. Farrer, the letters had to be 10 pages long. Looking back, his former students reflect on the magnitude of the project.

Conservative ‘Christian’ Student Whines About Classmate’s Jesus Story, Forces Teacher To Resign

A New Mexico teacher no longer has a job because a crazy religious student whined about a story written by a classmate about Jesus.

The creative writing assignment was given to all students in Katrina Guarascio’s class at Cleveland High School in Rio Rancho. The students were supposed to re-write a fairy tale or legend in a modern setting. Naturally, a student chose to make Jesus the main character of their story. In the story, Jesus hands out medical marijuana to the sick.

But upon trading stories with their fellow classmates for review, a religious student decided to complain and used the situation in an attempt to get her teacher fired. She ran to her mommy and daddy, who then created a firestorm by whining to school officials. Guarascio was put on administrative leave pending an investigation, as if she had absolute control about what her students would choose as their topic in creative writing.

“I don’t take any personal offense, Guarascio told KOAT-TV. “It’s not written for me, it’s written for them. It’s how they can express themselves.”

Guarascio also claims “the student who complained actually boasted to her classmates about how she was ‘going to get her teacher fired.'”

Nevertheless, school communications director Kim Vesely accused the 8 year veteran teacher of not being “professional” in the classroom, even though the two women had never met or been in the same room together. Rather than spend all her time fighting the school because of the religious temper tantrum of a snotty little teenage brat, Guarascio resigned. Guarascio says she felt harassed and targeted but hopes this doesn’t stem the creativity of students at the school.

“If they have something to say, say it,” she said. “Not everyone’s going to agree with you, but that doesn’t make your point invalid or worthless. Tell your story.”

Here’s the video via YouTube.

This is a clear case of what an assault on freedom of speech looks like when the assault is initiated by “Christian” extremists. It’s not like the teacher was telling her students that Jesus supports marijuana. A student followed the assignment and wrote a creative story about Jesus, who probably would hand out medical marijuana to help sick patients to alleviate their pain and suffering from diseases like cancer.

The religious student clearly had a vendetta against her teacher and was just waiting for an opportunity to cry to her parents about something that didn’t really even involve her. If she objected to the story, all she had to do is simply decline to review it. But apparently, this girl hasn’t learned about turning the other cheek. This school district owes Guarascio a public apology and the vengeful little religious brat needs to be punished in some way for causing an unnecessary school disruption.

Is this what we can expect now from “Christian” fundamentalist kids across the country? Their answer for seeing or reading something they don’t like is to whine about it until their parents complain and the teacher loses their job? Will science teachers now have to fear for their jobs since it’s pretty obvious that “Christian” students won’t like learning about evolution and basic reproductive biology?

This is why schools are having a harder time finding and keeping great teachers.

D.C. High School Principal Comes Out as Gay at Student Pride Event

Pete Cahall, the principal of Washington D.C.'s Wilson High School, came out as gay to his students at a Pride event on Wednesday, the Washington Post reports:

Wilson High School Principal Pete Cahall came out to his students as gay at a school-wide Pride Day event Wednesday, shaking as he said that he had “hid in the shadows for the last 50 years” but was inspired by his students to declare his sexual orientation openly. “I want to say publicly for the first time because of your leadership, care and support that I am a proud gay man who just happens to be the principal of Wilson High School,” he said in the packed atrium at the D.C. school, flanked by Mayor Vincent C. Gray (D) and David Catania (I), the D.C. Council’s first openly gay member.

Students cheered and hugged Cahall after the announcement. Mayor Vincent C. Gray (D) and David Catania (I), the D.C. Council’s first openly gay member were there for the announcement.

The Westboro Baptist Church last week announced plans to picket the school on June 9 because of its support for LGBT Pride and marriage equality, the WaPo reported on May 27:

The announcement triggered an immediate reaction from students, who took to social media to begin organizing a peaceful counterprotest. Rovinsky said that it’s been heartening to see her school come together in support of a common cause. 

“The fact that Westboro has targeted a high school where many kids struggle with understanding their sexuality and may take these crazy extremist comments to heart seems outrageous to me,” she wrote in an e-mail. “However, I do know that as a school community, we will stand up for all of our students ... Westboro has decided to go against the wrong school and the wrong city this time.”

Students walkout of Catholic high school in support of gay, married principal; yay, future

We know that both Catholics, despite their leadership, and young people, despite grownup baggage, tend to support equality in heightened numbers. Here's what those truths look like when they come together at one Washington high school:

Congress: I Think You Could Learn A Thing Or Two Watching These Teachers Solve Some Big-Ass Problems

In addressing their own administrative needs, these teachers built something truly cool that you might start seeing in classrooms across the country. And their bigger goals? They're not going to let spectacularly huge roadblocks like the one at 3:00 stop them. Teachers: 1, Adversity: 0

State Champion Colorado High School Coach Micah Porter Tells Team: I'm Gay

Outsports has the story of Micah Porter, a four-time state champion high school track & field coach in Denver, Colorado who recently came out to his students, the culmination of a four-year journey in which he came out to his wife and two children, school administration officials, and had begun changing in a school bathroom for fear of accusations of impropriety from conservative parents.

Porter now finally appears to have taken the most important step of all:

Porter called his team together before practice a week ago and told them he had some news. He let them know that an article about him would be coming out this week, and that the article discussed him being gay and would talk about his partner, Brandan.

The news was met with the same silence that stared back at him when he came out to his wife four years earlier.

After a few seconds, one of the team leaders - who Porter says could end the season as a conference champion - stood up, shook his hand, told him it didn't matter to him, and asked what that day's practice had in store for them. The rest of the team laced up their shoes and followed suit.

Read the full story at Outsports.

S.C. Teacher Bullied Student Mercilessly, Called Him "Gay Boy," Until Student Attempted Suicide

According to lawsuit, teacher repeatedly belittled the student in front of his peers, calling him names in class such as 'Gay,' 'Gay Boy,' 'Mrs. Pete,' 'Mrs. Peters."

 

 A high school math teacher in South Carolina bullied a student so mercilessly as "gay" that the boy tried to kill himself, the teen and his mother claim in court.

John Doe and his mother sued the Charleston County School District in the Charleston County Court of Common Pleas.

The teacher, Alan Ingram, is not named as a defendant, though he is named throughout the complaint. Ingram was the boy's teacher at West Ashley High School in Charleston, the family says in the lawsuit.

"In early April 2013, Ingram began bullying plaintiff in class, in front of plaintiff's classmates, by telling plaintiff's classmates that plaintiff was 'gay,' and by calling plaintiff names and belittling him in the presence of his classmates. This continued on a daily basis for an extended period of time," the complaint states.

"During this time, Ingram repeatedly belittled plaintiff in front of his peers, calling plaintiff names in class such as 'Gay,' 'Gay Boy,' 'Mrs. Pete,' 'Mrs. Peters,' and other names.

"Ingram repeatedly told plaintiff's classmates that plaintiff was in a homosexual relationship with another male classmate and that they were 'boyfriend and girlfriend'.

"Further, Ingram encouraged and asked other students in class to pick on plaintiff as well and similarly belittle him during classes."

The boy's mother, who filed the lawsuit as Jane Doe, said her son felt particularly helpless because Ingram was in a position of authority,

"Plaintiff was made to feel that he could not report this to the school administration; and further, plaintiff felt he could not appeal to any of his classmates due to the alienation and isolation created by Ingram," the mother and son say in the complaint.

The teacher's bullying gave boy "emotional and psychological distress which was manifested by physical illness," his mom says. As a result, she says, her son "attempted to commit suicide by hanging himself."

He has since withdrawn from school, is being educated at home, and is undergoing mental health counseling, his mother says.

The family seeks damages for gross negligence and pain and suffering, and costs of the lawsuit and medical bills.

They are represented by Philip Hammond, with Uricchio, Howe, Krell, Jacobson, Toporek, Theos & Keith.

Ingram is still a math teacher at West Ashley High School, according to the school's website, checked this morning (Friday).

Congressman who used to be a high school English teacher irks GOP by marking their memos with a red pen

Hoping that members of the House of Representatives will start using facts and coherent logic to advance the nation's interest is still a fool's errand, but there's one member of Congress, Rep. Mark Takano (D-CA), who's willing to at least pretend it's possible. Breaking out the teacher's most potent weapon, a red pen, he marked up Republican House members' letter to John Boehner forcing asking him to resist the immigration reform bill that has already passed America's slightly-less-insane upper chamber. Included in his comments are some words we haven't seen on a Congressional document in years, like "evidence," as well as an awesome invitation to "come by my office" if "you don't understand the bill."

Frankly, my favorite part is pointing out that given a proper word count, the bill is only 286 pages long. Why do I like this? Because "it's too long to read" is one of the GOP's new favorite reasons not to support things, which really does not help their anti-intellectual image. Obamacare, hate it or tolerate it, had about as many words as Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, not that Congresspeople read at that grade level. Can we at least agree that Congress shouldn't sound so afraid of reading?

Congress is pretty much the least-popular thing in America, which is impressive in the land of Honey Boo-Boo and Chris Brown. If there's one kind of person who isn't afraid to do their job in the face of massive unpopularity, though, it's a high-school teacher.