Emmit Hancock, a fifth-grade teacher in the Ravenswood City school district in San Francisco's Bay Area who in October 2005 filed a discrimination lawsuit alleging he was fired after telling his classroom that he is gay received a $41,000 settlement in the case.
The San Jose Mercury News reports: ” The dispute was sparked on the first day of school in 2004. Hancock, a new teacher, said he heard some boys on the playground calling each other derogatory names used to describe homosexual men. When he approached and told them not to use those words, he said they asked him why and whether he was gay. Hancock said he told them he had been gay for about five years but was now married. Soon after, word of Hancock's bisexuality spread through the school and eventually to parents, who called and complained to the school and the district. Hancock claimed school officials hardly let him teach until Principal Robin Miller asked him to resign.”
The school has always claimed that Hancock was fired because he “simply wasn't cutting it as a first-year teacher.”
Said Hancock: “It traumatized me. They really made it seem like the parents were really upset with me.”
Ravenswood and teacher who told students he was gay settle sex discrimination suit [san jose mercury news]
