A middle-school teacher in Detroit was suspended after playing a same-sex-marriage anthem in hopes of fostering understanding and prevent bullying.
A student at Centennial Middle School in South Lyons had originally requested performing-arts instructor Susan Johnson play Macklemore’s “Same Love.” After after ensuring there was no violence or inappropriate language, the instructor was happy to oblige.
But another student complained about the song, which explores the hatred faced by many in the LGBT community, and Johnson was suspended this week.
Anybody work at a school that honors, instead of punishes, good teachers? Maybe you can help Ms. Johnson find a better place to work.
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
Below, check out the video for Macklemore’s “Same Love”
Dakotahgeo
Obviously, education is not that school’s highest priority… but then that’s been the case for years! Hopefully Ms. Johnson will find a better job at an academically sound educational setting. Best wishes, Ms. Johnson, and a big lump of coal to the school administration!
Dakotahgeo, M.Div. Pastor/Chaplain
2eo
Don’t you dare teach those kids respect and moral values, this is America, we don’t go for that commie socialist crap your lucky we didn’t hang you. I wonder who the kid who complained parents are, not that I won’t know within an hour anyway mind.
rf7777
Here ya go. School principal and administrators.
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected]
hyhybt
The thing is… if it were the other way around, and someone played an explicitly anti-gay song in class with teacher permission, the reaction would be totally different. Yet if you allow one, then you have to allow the other as well.
Aussie Col
@hyhybt: Ok – you are plain wrong. Do you sing the praises of Hitler & Pol Pot, if you decry the deaths and destruction they caused?
Do you provide equal time to Atheism if you choose to go to Church?
I am sick to death of this crap that the other side deserves equal time and respect. Bigotry is wrong, hatred is wrong and listening to a song that promotes love and may give some small insight to the indignities, the violence against the LGBT family – my family is a great thing.
This argument was used by the waek assed people that try to crush the black American spirit and race…it was wrong then. It’s wrong now.
hyhybt
@Aussie Col: You may have misunderstood me. I’m NOT saying that the *school* has to treat both sides as equal. I’m saying that, as a matter of freedom of speech (however limited it may be in a school setting) if students are allowed to express an opinion on a subject then they must be allowed to take either side.
It’s also quite possible that I misunderstood the context in which the song was played.
petensfo
I read that the school actually supports diversity, and that the suspension was the result of the teacher not having personally previewed the vid before showing it to the class, which is their written policy.
It sounds to me as though they were in a rock & a hard place; could they really not enforce their own policy while an upset parent was glaring at the situation. I can only hope that the ‘offended’ student is ostracized.
Overall, if there wasn’t gay-content, there would never be an issue, so we’re back to an administration having to validate homophobia, likely because of an unfortunate misstep by a well intentioned teacher.
DarkZephyr
@hyhybt: At this school they were NOT allowed to take either side. The pro-gay side got the teacher suspended when the anti-gay side whined about it to the school officials and then the anti-gay side got their way. So why exactly are you giving positive lip service to the anti-gay side? Please explain.
DarkZephyr
@petensfo: If the school supports diversity, then they should have made some qualification to the whole darn school when they did this. They did not. The cry baby homophobic student got his/her way. I wouldn’t be surprised if the homophobe bullies the gay kid and doesn’t get in trouble for it.
hyhybt
@DarkZephyr: I’ve done no such thing; not only here and now, but anywhere at any time. That only happened inside your head, a space for which I cannot be held responsible.
Andy
So you are mad that a teacher got suspended for playing a song with an extremely controversial message and profanity? Not sure you all are really making sense. The song is obviously not appropriate for the classroom. This is not about whether the school board is anti gay or if the teacher was pro gay. That doesn’t matter, what matters is even though it is a great song, “Same Love” is inappropriate to be played for children without their parents permission. The teacher knew this going into it and should accept her consequences, and all of you whining about it need to move on to something that is important like changing the law, not worrying about this teacher.
Jaroslaw
I was under the impression only the song was played not the video from other sources.
I looked at the lyrics, there is very little there to be offended by. The songwriter
BARELY expresses his attraction is same sex. There is absolutely nothing explicit
sexually in the song, no violence. How is it “political” when the song says the right
wing feels “it” is a decision cured by prayer and religion or something to that effect.
THAT is exactly what they say! If it was a news report instead of a song, no one would have
a leg to complain on that one.
Not sure what the “slur” was the school people were referring to. He used the word “faggot”
once to say people hide behind their keyboards using it……
I hope that teacher wins big for defamation of character or whatever else she can get
those lame donkeys on! This is really a sad day for so called education.
Jaroslaw
Andy #11 – I missed your comment before I made my comment above- I realize there is a line that is difficult to
navigate when it comes to what parents approve of and what they do not approve of. And I surely don’t want to give the impression that I feel we should blatantly disrespect parents…
But if a child knew nothing of homosexuality, which hardly seems possible in this
day and age………there isn’t much more they would know after hearing that song.
Shall we not teach that the Nazi’s killed 6 million Jews during WWII? How exactly
does one define “controversial”? What exactly is allowed and not allowed? The teacher was not advocating homosexuality nor
was the song, he was barely discussing his own feelings. And can you assume the “children”
listened to each and every word? Man, if you were going to give a test afterwords, I bet
3/4 of the class would fail!