Middle school students in Pennsylvania are rallying behind a teacher who was reportedly fired for providing them with a hotline for LGBTQ+ youth.
Students at Doylestown’s Lenape Middle School gathered in protest on Tuesday, demanding the school reinstate social studies teacher Andrew Burgess. Burgess was abruptly fired last Friday after he reportedly gave a bullied transgendered student the hotline number.
“It was kind of like a slap in the face to everyone that would go to him and stuff for, because I would consistently go to him for when I was being bullied and harassed within our school,” one of the student demonstrators told Channel 9.
“It was simply a hotline number, just in case the person needed help,” said another.
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Another protester told the station that Burgess is “one of the biggest allies of this school,” and that he “supports all students in every way, and a lot of people go to him.”
Related: This Florida student is saying gay all over the place and school officials are freaking out
An online petition to get Burgess his job back has received over 3,700 signatures at the time of this post.
“Mr. Burgess a Lenape middle school history teacher has been suspended with pay pending a further investigation for giving a trans student a phone number to call if they felt unsafe or bullied,” the petition reads. “Make no mistake this is an act of homophobia and needs he needs to be re instated right away.”
The superintendent of the Central Bucks School District, Abe Lucabaugh, is denying the story without offering an alternative reason behind Bugess’ firing.
“There is a narrative out there that the district has punished an employee for being a supporter of LGBTQ+ students,” Lucabaugh told the Courier Times. “That narrative is offensive and false.”
“I care very deeply about how kids feel, and we want to do a better job with it, but that narrative does not help,” he added.
Across the country, teachers are being reprimanded, and often fired, for engaging with students on topics of race, sexuality and gender. More than a dozen states have proposed versions of Florida’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill.
One Florida teacher was fired last week for telling students she is pansexual after they asked her about her sexuality. And last month, a gay substitute teacher said he was fired after handing out Pride bracelets to students.
Mr. Stadnick
If he wasn’t suspended for giving the phone number as the superintendent suggests what was the reason?
G-Man
That is the 64k question and i would love to know the answer.
JohnMc888
The “real reason” will probably be another way of describing giving the student the help line number, some blah blah about consistently ignoring district rules on teacher student relations. Like accepting a hug from a crying, bullied student.
Cam
Republicans would rather have trans kids commit suicide than get help.
jt1990
Nonsense! I would love to see kids and adults alike get the help they need with mental illness. That hotline would only further the damage this kid already sustained from exposure to Leftist propaganda. That’s why the teacher was fired! When I was in a school of about 900, not one student ever mentioned a desire to have a sex change. But according to my 15 year old niece, half the school is now coming out as trans or bi etc…This is the same school in the south that I attended about 12 years ago! Kids, especially middle schoolers, will follow any trend they think will net them special attention. Thankfully my generation was more into sports and fancy clothes to make them look cool. This one will literally mutilate themselves to match whatever trend the Liberal-dominated media introduces.
Bosch
JT seems to think being bi is some kind of liberal propaganda?
I know a pool boy who would disagree…
LeBlevsez
jt1990 –
You must flee! Flee to the wilderness. Build a solitary life. Write your manifesto. Resist the urge to comingle with others. Thus you will maintain your integrity. Fifty or sixty years from now, after the trans-or-bi-etc mania has subsumed humanity, you, and you alone, will stand as the paragon we all know you are. You will re-enter society as the example everyone will need. Thus you will save humanity and all the people of the world will rejoice!
Good luck and God bless!
Cam
@jt1990
Awww, sweetie, if we’re discussing mental illness, let’s talk about somebody who comes onto an LGBTQ site for YEARS trying to obsessively attack Queer people, switching names to post multiple times and basically being completely obsessed.
Talk to a therapist and see if your unhealthy obsession with LGBTQ people is normal.
Glendabulous
to jt1990 First off being Trans is not a mental illness…the problem comes due to excessive bullying which would cause anyone to have mental struggles! 2nd of all being LGBT is not a fad or a “trend”…the only reason we have more people coming out is because unlike you there is more acceptance and support than there was 12 years ago when you were in school, and Thank Heavens for that! 3rd a hotline to help trans kids cope is NOT exposure to Leftist propaganda you need to get your head out of FOX news and stop listening to your orange crybaby XPOTUS he hold NO credibility to anyone who matters.
Creamsicle
These laws exist to get every genuinely nurturing teacher out of public education and leave it filled with bitter people who don’t teach because it is their calling. That way the conservative crusade against public education can continue, and they can point to failing schools full of unfit teachers and claim that public education is a failure and that poor children should be made into cheap labor and/or married off as young as possible so that the rich have their pick of people desperate to escape poverty.
inbama
Sounds like the reverse of college where “marginalized” students bring cell phones to class to capture their professors committing “microaggressions” that make them feel “unsafe.”
Cam
Awww, the troll account desperately tries to hide an actual example of right wingers attacking a teacher for helping a student by making up a situation where somehow the marginalized groups are “Bullies”.
Nice try precious.
Mr. Stadnick
Do you really believe that? I guess you are for hate and suppression. Pathetic
white-queer-african
@inbama or whatever other troll screenname you post under on Queerty. Why don’t you just FO as you have never commented / contributed anything positive to queer life. Maybe you in need of serious phycological help to get you to accept that either you queer or that you just a troll looking to trigger queer folks like me? For you to get a thrill out of it because clearly you are not getting laid. Cupcake, sadly for you, we are not being fooled by you!
Kangol2
I can think of at least 10 local colleges and universities where nothing of the sort of right-wing cr@p you’re claiming has occurred, but you go on believing that garbage far-right press, with its endless whining and grievances. I will tell you, though, if you, “marginalized” or not, broach certain topics, like the Israeli occupation of Palestine, you sure in the hell will find yourself in a world of trouble! And as we’ve seen, it isn’t the Left that’s passing laws to quash free speech, it’s your beloved right wingers like Ron DeathSantis!
ZzBomb
No citation? How typical right wing.
monty clift
Lol, You made that up. My middle finger says hi.
monty clift
The fact that students en masse are coming out in support of LGBT teachers shows how out of touch republicans are.
Fahd
As a rule of thumb, never trust what the school board says.
Heywood Jablowme
“Firing” seems to be the wrong word here. The online petition says he “has been suspended with pay pending a further investigation.” Suspended with pay is NOT the same thing as being fired, just like a student being suspended from school is not the same thing as being expelled.
He shouldn’t have been suspended, but he’ll probably be reinstated fairly quickly. This is a public school in suburban Philadelphia and I assume the teachers have a union. But if it was Florida I wouldn’t be so sure!
Invader7
Call the lawyer and the sue the F88K out of that lame ass school district !!! And depose that idiotic superintendant STAT !!!
JromeGervais09
What is happening across the country is a far right- neo-christian fascism which is much like what Hilter did in Germany in the early 1930s. It will spread and you need to be very afraid of this. Read chapter 6 of Mein Kampf to see Hitler’s strategy regarding propaganda and his thoughts that the common man was not smart enough to direct a government and vote for their free rights. Take heed. We are in very serious danger.
Invader7
Exactly…