Mitch Stein, a gay dad from Pomona, CA with a partner and two daughters, is suing the Charter Oak Unified School district for wrongful termination. He claims he was fired from his position as a high school water polo coach only because he is gay.
The firing happened over two Facebook photos from years ago that his school principal deemed “obscene.”
From ABC News:
According to Stein, the Facebook and MySpace photos were sent to school principal Kathleen Wiard anonymously. He said he had never personally met her until the day she called him into the office to fire him, calling the photos “obscene.”
He also said her questioning suggested that she falsely equated homosexuality with pedophilia.
ABCNews.com obtained the photos. One, showed Stein fully clothed being lifted up by five men in drag. In the other, he had an open mouth and was ready to eat a corn dog.
“As we know from Michelle Bachman, the ones of eating a hot dog make people look ridiculous,” said Stein’s Los Angeles lawyer, Brad Kane.
Obviously, the cowardly anonymous tipper had gay on the brain. People always blame the photo, rather than look at why their own minds perceive something “obscene.”
How about we take this to the next level?
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The school district adamantly claims Stein’s homosexuality has nothing to do with it. Charter Oak Unified Superintendent Mike Hendricks responded, “I cannot comment except to say, as I have done in the past, that Mitch Stein was not terminated due to his sexual orientation.”
According to Attorney Kane, “[The photos] were years old. But taking them down was not sufficient. They terminated him because they didn’t want ‘people like you close to children.’ What does that say?”
It’s angering that educators are still trotting out ye ole pedophilia claim. Stein was going to leave the school, but his teenage daughter, who’s a student at the school, urged him to stay: “No, Dad. If we leave, they have won.” From the mouths of babes.
Stein has received lot of support from others at the school, and continues to participate as president of the water polo team’s booster club. Huzzah to Stein for sticking around, and for his bravery in standing up for his rights.
[Image by tpower1978 via Flickr/Creative Commons]
w.e.
Unfair, but it seems he used some very poor judgement by posting these questionable photos. One would need to know the context of said images, especially the one cavorting with drag queens, before assessing his suitability as a teacher for impressionable minds.
Daez
@w.e.: Yes, because we all know that “cavorting” with drag queens leads to molesting a 16 year old boy in the showers. It is common fact. You sound worse than the principal that fired this guy for being gay, and since you are gay you should know better.
Unless you think that anyone that is not cisgendered, male and white is a blight to the gay community.
Bob
@w.e.: Blame the victim??? Are you even gay? If so, maybe it’s time to stand-up for your people to fight this type of bigotry!
Thomathy
W.e., are you serious? This is a man with an established family. You’re drawing a line toward accusations of paedophilia or the potential for it. That’s just awful. It’s not even poor judgment to post such photos as described; the photos are not questionable.
Who’s judgment was poor was that of the principal who has looked at a man with a family and thought he’s somehow not suitable to coach a polo team because of what? The person and people in them. That’s also just awful.
A. Reckonwith
@w.e.: As a drag performer I have to say there are literally hundreds of photos that I have taken with straight men (and obviously gay men) that are far more incriminating and questionable then a picture that “…showed Stein fully clothed being lifted up by five men in drag”; many of these men are professionals in their fields (teachers of all levels, doctors, lawyers etc). To think that an individual giving back to the community, (some of the strongest influences in my life were my athletic coaches) would be fired based solely on the uninformed interpretation of one individual is the only thing “obscene” here, and needs to be fought back at with full force.
Chris
@w.e.: I love the “especially” part…..in what way does “cavorting” with drag queens make you unsuitable to teach impressionable minds…or actually, I have a question, you said you need to know context…in what context would the “cavorting” photo disqualify him from teaching? Are you gay? I was unaware that there were any gay men over the age of 21, who hadn’t on occasion “cavorted” with a drag queen or two!
Mangina
Not only does this scream bigotry but it’s another sad chapter in America’s educational system where a capable teacher is fired in favor of bias ignorance. Instead of the fixing illiteracy problem, we are turning out adults who cannot read or write.
Sheldon
So what were the photos of?
Spike
Water polo, isn’t that the sport where super hot str8t guys grab each others junk under the water and have to wear double speedos because of the constant yanking/grabbing that occurs to distract opposing players as it is completely out of view of the referee? So what exactly was the issue with the coach being gay?
Callum
I thought such discriminatory practices were illegal in California.
Sheldon
OK I read the article. They should have at least asked him to remove the photos or told him to delete them from his facebook account if the school’s administration and this guy’s bosses didn’t like them. They shouldn’t have just fired him out of nowhere.
This being said since he’s a teacher he should not have made such photos public for anyone to see on facebook, or even had a facebook page to begin with.
I know a lot of teachers and some of them are LGBT but while they may be on facebook they have their profiles and photos set to private or friends only.
Delius
Its his fault..post rique photos and then lose your job.
What an idiot.
Well
I never cease to be surprised by the extreme conservativism and narrow-mindedness of some of the people posting here. Please close your closet door and stop bothering us.
kelehe
@w.e.: Questionable photos? Based on the description, they don’t sound questionable at all. Unless you equate being gay, associating with/wearing drag as somehow immoral. And eating the corndog? Well as his attorney said, “As we know from Michelle Bachman, the ones of eating a hot dog make people look ridiculous”
Clockwork
@Callum:
>I thought such discriminatory practices were illegal in California.
Me too, California is very good for gay teachers.
Need to see the pics.
More reason to short Facebook. Company will be dust in 5 years.
reality
Sorry, but if I was a k-12 teacher, I wouldn’t have a facebook or a myspace. You’re just asking for trouble.
Ho hum. He’ll get another job.
Ben
Being located near Charter Oak I know what the school is like. They have more drug problems than other schools nearby. They should focus on that first and also give Mitch his job back or at least try a different school with better programs
scott ny'er
so bizarre… how some posters think a drag queen photo and eating a corn dog is risque or questionable. Actually, it’s sad. I’m sure Milton Berle would have a word for you.
jk
@w.e.: What? What is wrong with you? Drag queens are immoral or what? This school is immoral.
jk
@Sheldon: remove? delete? it’s nonsense. what is wrong with pictures with drag queens?
jk
@Delius: u are idiot. i don’t see anything wrong. it’s normal pictures. i’m so happy that i live in europe. it would be impossible to be fired even in poland.
NateOcean
w.e. said: “…suitability as a teacher for impressionable minds…”
———————-
Actually this might be *exactly* the proper influence for young minds.
Students might observe (if they cared much at all) a teacher conducting himself professionally in the manner expected of all teachers. He might even turn out to be an exceptional coach.
A questioning kid (with a bit of teen angst or despair) would be exposed to a positive role model counteracting the negative stereotypes.
A straight kid (harboring some anti-gay feelings) might similarly see that those stereotypes are not true.
Sounds like a Win-Win to me!
Carlos
I agree with reality. I have taught before and having a public myspace or facebook page is just asking for trouble and to get fired or have people stalk or harass you. I don’t mean just students but your bosses and other teachers too.
w.e.
Teachers should represent our “best and brightest” and be paragons of virtue for their students and the community at large. By brazenly flaunting conventions and implying involvement in sordid activities, a teacher may lose this esteemed status that others have fought so hard to attain.
Brandon
This is why ENDA is needed and far more important than same gender marriage. Who decided that same gender marriage is the #1 priority for LGBT people?
Jerome Williams
LOL I agree w.e. it’s excellent in theory but in reality a lot of teachers are not the “best and brightest” and are not paragons of virtue at all and this guy is a perfect example of this.
Marcos
@17 Ben-It’s a high school! So what if the students use drugs? Or a large number of them regularly smoke herb or use other drugs? As long as it’s not effecting their grades and they’re not overdosing and dying, and are using drugs responsibly and safely more power to them! It’s all about harm reduction people.
David
I agree with Marcos the fact that there’s lots of drugs at this highschool isn’t necessarily a bad thing. People can and do use drugs responsibly even HS kids.
Now about this teacher, he’s an idiot if he actually had a facebook page and posted pictures of himself online like this. I guess he didn’t like being a teacher and wanted to lose his job!
Gay Bacon
Just because you are an educator doesn’t mean you not allowed to have a Facebook page. In fact many use it as a form of group communication and file sharing like drop box with pizzaz. Many of my professors also used it as virtual diaries of work done by each group member that worked that day, “gay bacon, June 06 2012: I tried to explain to certain users on queerty that fb pages should not be restricted to the unprofessional”
As for being lifted by drag queens or eating a corn dog in a suggestive manner, that has absolutely no ground for being used as a rubic for someone’s ability to coach water polo and if it was deemed unprofessional due to it being suggestive, what exactly was it suggesting and why should it be a means for firing someone?
This reeks of homophobia IMO…