Gay educator Willie Carver Jr., Kentucky’s 2022 Teacher of the Year, has officially decided to leave K-12 teaching behind.
After 17 years of teaching, Willie Carver Jr. said that he has decided to leave the classroom and take a position in student support services at the University of Kentucky due to the homophobic and conservative conditions affecting public education today.
Late last month, Carver spoke publicly about their hesitation to return to the classroom after the ‘21-’22 school year in the wake of the recent conservative focus on public school goings-on.
“If I am, every few weeks, having to stop and undergo some sort of investigation over what’s happening in my class, I’m not going to be mentally able to do this work,” Carver told EdWeek.
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“Then what are my students seeing? A stressed-out, unhappy LGBTQ adult. I don’t think that’s what they need to see.”
Related: This gay high school music teacher was blackmailed and outed; his school responded horribly
Carver did note that conditions for queer people were improving for a time, recounting their experience trying to get a sign-off on their teaching license in 2010:
“An administrator pulled me into an office and said, ‘You will be crucified. No one will protect you, including me. You will not get a teaching license if you’re openly gay.’”
While Carver has come to a place of being openly gay in his professional life, he admitted that that openness faced its own kind of oppression.
Related: A teacher was fired for helping a bullied, queer teen. Now his students are raising hell.
Here in 2022, various “Don’t Say Gay” bills and debates over critical race theory impacting public education make it hard for many to teach openly and honestly.
Even past the government objections to their teaching, public teachers like Carver face inordinate challenges. Earlier this month eight (8!) different Kentucky school districts were closed on the same day due to threats of mass shootings.
As much a conservatives seem concerned with what is happening in public schools, they don’t seem to want to address the actual imminent threat of gun violence affecting U.S. schoolchildren on a regular basis.
Though Carver has decided to leave public schooling behind, his talents as an educator will undoubtedly serve the students of the University of Kentucky well.
Watch Carver testify before a House Subcommittee on behalf of queer students and teachers:
jt1990
Leaving “due to the homophobic and conservative conditions affecting public education today.” C’mon man! Virtually all public schools these days are hyper-PC “safe-spaces,” even in top conservative states. This teacher got the state’s best teacher award (shiny new resume credential) and headed for greener pastures. And there’s likely more to the story regarding this fellow’s claim regarding the administrator. I’m getting male “Karen” vibes just looking at his photo.
CatholicXXX
Very poor attempt at trolling on your part. Public schools in red states are far from “safe-spaces.” Have you not seen all the books people have removed from public school libraries?
Winsocki
jt you sound silly….. safe spaces. RIght as students get shot and killed. Conservative take over want kids dumb. I would quit teaching also if you have to be armed and then censor critical thinking.
BOB K
COULDN’T DECIDE WHICH UGLY NAME IS MORE APPROPRIATE TO CALL YOU
-. IT’S GOD DAMN KENTUCKY THAT ELECTS RAND PAUL AND MITCH MCCONNELL
– AND YOU HAVE TO BE COMPLETELY STUPID TO THINK THAT THE TEACHER OF THE YEAR IS GOING TO BOTHER MAKING UP THE STORIES
mailliw110
As a public school custodian in a big city in Oregon, I can tell you haven’t set foot in a public school since you got kicked out in third grade. How safe was Uvalde elementary?
LumpyPillows
The safe space, PC nonsense is nowhere near as prevalent as you think although it serves a great Republican talking point. The loony-left, safe space, non-binary attack on rationality is the cause for the backlash, which is real. But, hey teachers get it from the left and right.
Just wait, fickle liberals have backstabbed Biden, weakening his hand and dooming us in the upcoming elections. You want to see real damage to LGBT people, just wait till they take the House and Senate from the irritatingly smug loser democrats. They won’t care about precedent, they will kill the filibuster and remove Biden and Harris. Then McCarthy will be president. You think the coup failed? Just wait.
The Supremes have already gone scorched earth based on the gun ruling. We are doomed. Thanks for being pricks and not voting for Hillary, turning on Biden, and generally being smug losers.
monty clift
@jt1990, jump in a vat of acid, it’ll do you some good.
aka_Buzz
@jt1990
Yet another bout of verbal diarrhea.
You sure like the taste of bullshit.
inbama
He writes a good and serious speech and then wears silly glasses that make him look like he has the maturity of a ten year old.
Why?
BOB K
WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING ON THIS PAGE IF YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND GAY PEOPLE?
HE WORE THE HELLO I’M GAY GLASSES ON PURPOSE BECAUSE HE’S FED UP AND HE’S ALREADY QUIT
mailliw110
Yeah, but he has a tie on, so….Sorry, not a fashion diva like you.
LumpyPillows
I thought the same about the silly glasses.
Josh in OR
Beau Brummell ruined mens fashion for generations by insisting that only boring, drab, and stuff were ‘manly’. We’re finally, FINALLY in a place where self expression for men is more than ‘should I wear the grey or the grey?’ How about enjoy the expansion instead of criticizing people for things that have ZERO effect on your life…?
inbama
@Josh in OR
How about making choices that result in WINNING instead of having to quit?
Brian
Still feels like progress. My high school allowed just the graduating senior class to vote for superlatives like “best teacher” in the school’s yearbook, and during all four years that I attended, the winning teacher was a man who used the word f***** pretty often. Students just loved him. He would say that word about gay men in general, about other male teachers who he thought might be gay, and he would even say it at students. And still, he was literally the most popular teacher. I know, it’s a low bar, but I’m just glad that this more deserving person won something at all.
JMoore
I love it when people get bullied in a comment section… it’s so endearing, refreshing and NEW!
okokwhatever
So this person doesn’t feel safe being a gay teacher at K-12 and cannot teach his agenda to the world so he leaves. Kudos to the stupidness. I don’t understand what has happened to this country and our schools. We have truly lost it. Oh well, back to the Belly. Miss the 90’s so much.
monty clift
A dumbass like you would like to go back to the nineties, it’s probably the only time you had any relevancy.
Joshua333
STFU I would be surprised if you even passed K-12