Jerry Buell: 'I Try to Teach and Lead My Students as if Lake Co. Schools Had Hired Jesus Christ Himself'
Jerry Buell, the anti-gay teacher whose remarks about same-sex marriage on Facebook got him temporarily suspended from teaching and made him a hero to the religious right and groups like NOM, and the Liberty Counsel (which is representing him), is now under scrutiny for remarks he wrote in his class syllabus and on his school website.
In one section Buell wrote, "I am a man of God and I try to be like Jesus every day. I teach God's truth, I make very few compromises. If you believe you may have a problem with that, get your schedule changed, 'cause I ain't changing!"
Then there's a comment from Buell's website stating, "I try to teach and lead my students as if Lake Co. Schools had hired Jesus Christ himself."
Buell doesn't understand what the problem is, because he's been anti-gay been using the same syllabus for years.
"The school district is saying that might run a foul to what they call the separation of church and state," said Buell's attorney Harry Mihet. "We are going to have to evaluate the schools position and engage them in some dialogue."
The school district believes he violated the constitutional provision of separation of church and state.
This is a new controversy, separate from the Facebook one.
On Facebook, Buell had written that he "almost threw up" in response to a news story about same-sex marriage in New York. Buell also called the marriages part of a "cesspool" and said they were a sin.
Buell returned to his classroom this week.
From the ACLU legal perspective the "man of God" stuff is a separate issue (though I disagree with the ACLU on the FB issue), but in terms of Jerry's character it's all of a piece. No surprise that a man who can't deal maturely with his homophobic venom on a public forum (by keeping it to himself) would also not be able to deal with the separation of church and state in the classroom. He's not only going to bring God into it, he wants to be Jesus.
So, while he may have got off on the FB offense (though I agree with Oh Please about that) in a legal sense, it was clearly indicative of professional shortcomings, more of which are being revealed now. Ultimately, while he may regret none of the vile things he said on FB, they will continue to call attention to his professional ethics, the kind of attention that could--in a sane world--get his as$ fired.
Posted by: Ernie | Aug 26, 2011 11:56:38 AM
Any bets on how long it will take before we find out that this guy hires male hookers?
Posted by: Franklin | Aug 26, 2011 12:12:23 PM
Wouldn't the students find it a little confusing to have a teacher lecturing them in Aramaic?
Posted by: Bagkitty | Aug 26, 2011 12:21:04 PM
The place where this bozo runs into serious trouble is that he put "If you believe you may have a problem with that, get your schedule changed" on his syllabus.
He couldn't make it clearer in that statement that he's aggressively putting himself ahead of his students and interfering even with their ability to take the kinds of classes they want or need to take. It's not the students' responsibility to work around a teacher's personal agenda. It's the teachers to teach all his/her students as objectively as possible.
I've worked in various educational environments, and I can't imagine any of them where putting a "deal with my personal issues or change your schedule" style statement wouldn't get you suspended or fired, no matter side of an issue somebody was professing (politics, religion-- or atheism--, social activism, etc.). The problem for this dope is that he didn't confine it to Facebook; he directly took a combative tone to his actual course material.
I doubt even the ACLU will want to defend this guy on this part of the issue.
Posted by: bobbyjoe | Aug 26, 2011 2:21:36 PM
Sorry for the novel but...here I go!
In regards to the unique damage that this kind of anti-gay behavior is, what it encourages and how it damages yet another generation of gay youth...
I believe that homophobia might be even more dangerous than sexism and racism for two reasons...one, usually members of an attacked racial group look out for each other; gay men, in particular, stop at nothing to distance themselves from other gay people and keep walking past the attack while another gay person is getting hurt. Also, racism is about one group feeling superior towards another; as if the 'lower' group is a social burden to taxpayers.
Because gay women and men are often portrayed as affluent, post-doctorate educated, enjoying the best of materials and conveniences, vacationing at the best places and wearing only the most expensive clothes...we are ENVIED - this hate and closet envy is not about religion or what we do sexually, these people aren't smart enough to form an argument based on scripture or sexual health - let's just say it - straight people are pissed that they have to work a lot harder to support a family they often resent, that doesn't appreciate them; they're stuck in a sexless marriage that's going nowhere, and they're trapped in that life forever, while mountains of debt and uncertain job status piles up. They think gays are forever 17 - we don't have to worry about kids or relationships, so we get to go wherever we want, whenever we want, with whoever we want. And it eats their guts out. That's what this is about. We are being scapegoated just like Jewish people were.
As gay people, we are parly at fault for promoting a false illusion: we are all rich, overeducated and insisting on the most expensive, when the REAL truth is many of us dropped out of high school and never went back, we couldn't afford the big, progressive city so we never met anyone, we can't find a job, and the rest of the gay 'community' only cares about you if you're a success story or can do something for them. So not only do we not have a safe space in straight society, but gay society doesn't care what happens to each other. It's not 'getting better' - don't kid yourselves. Get out of NYC or San Fran and see what it's like for everyone else.
Posted by: Jonathan Lund | Aug 30, 2011 11:33:44 AM