But for at least one Oregon college student, the student teaching process seemed to be a reminder that in some school districts, it’s still not OK to acknowledge the existence of LGBT people.

Head on over to Beaverton School District, in the suburbs of Portland. There, Seth Stambaugh, a 23-year-old graduate teaching student at Lewis and Clark College, was told by school district administrators that he was no longer allowed to student teach in the district. They told him he had made “inappropriate” comments, and that he would have to find another school district to student teach in.

So just what were those “inappropriate” comments? According to the Portland Mercury, Stambaugh was asked by a student whether he was married. Stambaugh, openly gay, said that he was not, adding that it would be illegal for him to be married in the state of Oregon because he “would choose to marry another guy.” Asked by the same student whether that meant that Stambaugh liked hanging out with men, Stambaugh replied “Yeah.”

They say that honesty is the best policy. But in this case, a parent in the school district caught wind of the conversation and went to school administrators telling them that if they didn’t remove Stambaugh from the classroom, the parent would remove his child.

So the school district called up Stambaugh and Lewis and Clark College, and said that these comments were “inappropriate,” and that Stambaugh would have to student teach elsewhere.

Yes, apparently in the Beaverton School District, just saying that you may want to marry someone of the same gender could get you removed from the classroom. Sound awful? Send a note to the Beaverton School District demanding that they explain the rationale for removing a student teacher on the basis of his sexual orientation.

What’s even more agitating in this instance is that the parent who complained about Stambaugh’s comment also complained about Stambaugh’s choice in clothing earlier in the semester. The parent called the school to file a complaint about Stambaugh’s outfit: pressed slacks, a button-up oxford shirt, and a cardigan, which happened to be a gift from Stambaugh’s grandfather. Apparently the outfit was too provocative for this parent, prompting a complaint. Lord knows what would have happened if the outfit would have included a tie.

The Beaverton School District, for their part, is sticking to their guns, telling media that these incidences occurred, and that they worked with Lewis and Clark College to get Stambaugh placed in another school district where oxford shirts aren’t so homosexual. But if you ask folks at Lewis and Clark, which is what The Portland Mercury did, they say that they were completely cut off from the decision-making process to remove Stambaugh, and had hoped to work with the school district directly to address the issue. The school district made the decision on their own, without working with Stambaugh’s professors or administrative staff at Lewis and Clark.

Which makes this case sound pretty bad. One parent complains about a student teacher acknowledging the reality that same-sex couples can’t get married in the state of Oregon, and that’s enough to get said student teacher fired? That’s troublesome, and if proven true, it’s also a pretty stark case of discriminating against someone because of their sexual orientation.

Beaverton officials continue to fall back on the mantra that Stambaugh’s conversation was not appropriate. “Our concerns were about the professional judgment and age appropriateness,” said spokeswoman Maureen Wheeler.

What is age appropriate then? Lying to the student? Forcing a student teacher like Stambaugh to pretend to be straight? Is that what Beaverton officials would have rather had seen happen? Because, by all accounts, that would be fostering a climate of lying and dishonesty. Hard to imagine those are the values that Beaverton officials would like to see instilled in its fourth graders.

It’s also worth noting that this isn’t the first time LGBT concerns have been raised regarding the Beaverton School District. Several years back, a former teacher sued the district, alleging that the school district created an openly hostile environment full of humiliation, harassment and intimidation, following the teacher’s decision to put on a production of The Laramie Project, the play that chronicles the death and immediate aftermath of Matthew Shepard.

Stambaugh now has a pro bono lawyer, Lake Perriguey, who told The Portland Mercury that Stambaugh is now looking to find an alternative placement — a true loss given that Stambaugh prepared for his Beaverton school assignment for weeks.

“He’s looking at all of his options right now. His primary concern has always been to be a good teacher,” said Perriguey.

Huh, what do you know. His primary concern was to be a good teacher. And instead, Beaverton School District gave him the boot.

Photo credit: cdsessums

Gay Student Teacher Fired for Saying He Wanted to Marry a Man?

?Rosemary's?Quarry produces approximately one-million tons of aggregate annually.
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?Granite has a history of creating pit mines for aggregate. And?quite?a history in Oregon; the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality?
recently fined Granite for polluting?the watershed of that state.?
?What would stop them from doing the same to our watershed???
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?The Santa Margarita Ecological Reserve is in the midst of the?Santa Margarita Valley.? Nestled?near the?cities of Fallbrook, Murrieta, Rainbow, and?Temecula, the Valley is a welcome retreat from fast-paced city life,?and?is one of the last pristine places in the area.? The?Valley is also home to the Santa Margarita River – one of the?very few free-flowing rivers of Southern California.??
?
?The local Luiseno Indians?are opposed to the quarry. The site is
considered sacred to tribal members, and said to?have artifacts important?to their cultural heritage.??Their voice has thus far been ignored.
?
?Native residents, homeowners, schools, doctors, entire cities, and?nearly 8oo local companies and bussinesses are opposed to the Quarry as well.
?Their opinions don't count, apparently.??
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?????????????????????????????? The Consequences?
The objective of this?quarry is to mine as much aggregate from the 414 acre site as possible by any means possible.
?The difference between this mine and others??This time, an entire mountain?needs to be taken down and broken up to acquire that aggregate. That means using 10,000 pounds of explosives per blast, per day. Twenty hours a day, six days a week(minemum). For seventy-five years. ?There is also the 310 gallons of fresh, clean water that will be used?per minute to manufacture the aggregate. That adds up to 86,000 gallons per day, or roughly 2,028,233,000 gallons?over the course of the mines 75-year?lifetime.
??Not to mention the huge trucks (needed to take the aggregate to buyers) that will clog the i15 freeway?even more than it already is. Oh, and the extra diesel soot as a byproduct of all those trucks.?
??
? It will also create sillicate dust to pollute the air. That sillicate will be carried on the breeze at least?fifty miles in all directions from the?
quarry site.?Residents, both human and not,?will suffer respiratory problems as a result of the toxic nature of sillicate.? The dust will settle over and smother anything in its path.
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?? Even Granite's own environmental report admits there will be substantial ecological consequences?to the?area surrounding the mine.?
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?? The Riverside County Board of Supervisors is considering?approval of??this? monstrous pit mine to increase revenue and create jobs. Every?concern over the impacts -?environmental, cultural, residential -?of this?quarry?have thus far been ignored.???

?Of course, it will create?jobs.? But at what cost?
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??With so much aggregate already being mined from?Rosemary's Quarry,?within such a close proximity?to the Liberty Quarry,?is yet another pit mine really needed??
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?What is more important? Economy? Or preserving?our cultural heritage, our right to health as residents, and our?scarce SouthernCalifornia?coastal-inland??habitat???
???????????????????????????????? You decide.?
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No Quarry!