A substitute teacher in Utah had to be escorted off school premises after berating a fifth grade student for having two dads.
The teacher reportedly asked students what they were grateful for this year, in preparation for the Thanksgiving holiday. When one boy told her he was thankful that he was about to be adopted by his two dads, the woman went off.
“Why on earth would you be happy about that?” she demanded, according to reports from several students that were pieced together after the incident.
She reportedly went on to rant at the entire class for ten minutes about how sinful homosexuality is, telling the boy directly that being adopted by two dads is “nothing to be thankful for.”
Louis and Josh van Amstel said their son, who they referred to as D.M. to protect his privacy, didn’t want to talk about what happened because he was so traumatized by this teacher’s rant. Even worse, the whole incident left the 11-year-old worried that his December 19th adoption wouldn’t end up happening, after having two previous adoptions fall through, leaving him in foster care and without a permanent family.
“He was so fearful that this could make us think that we don’t want to adopt him,” Louis said. “That’s definitely not going to happen. But this situation really hurt him. This person really hurt us.”
The substitute was only stopped after three girls in the class, who repeatedly asked the teacher to stop with her homophobic lecture, left class and brought the principal in to intervene.
Van Amstel says school officials told him the teacher was immediately escorted off the premises but continued arguing about homosexuality all the while, and placed the blame on D.M. for igniting her rant.
The school district uses an external staffing company, Kelly Services, to procure substitute teachers. While both the company and the school district spokesman have expressed concerns about the teacher’s behavior, it’s unclear what exactly will become of her future in substitute teaching.
Van Amstel’s emotional video about the troubling incident can be seen below:
