Here’s a soap opera-like confession that helps puts the cycle of bullying into perspective, because instances of lashing out — physically or with words — never exist independently of one another.
A Redditor set up a throwaway account to make a confession from his teenage days and share what he takes away from the experience now.
He writes:
It all started 20 years ago. I was in middle school with all the insecurities that came with it, the most important (in this case) was the desire to blend in.
The teacher in question was fresh out of college, still a rookie. The class was overbooked by exactly one student. I happened to be late that day. One desk short. There is me front and center, singled out, looking awkward, on display: nice try blending in. This is the stuff teenage nightmares are made of.
The teacher seemed to have it all figured out: “I’ll have the janitors bring up an extra desk tomorrow,” he assured me; but that never happened. Days passed with no extra desk. Then weeks. Then months. Every day the nightmare repeated. Standing just inside the door hoping someone was absent. Waiting till everyone had arrived to see if there would be an empty seat. If all were in attendance I would have to sit at the teachers desk with my books on that little pull out board thing.
It felt personal. Like it was being done to me. The reality could have been there were no spare desks. Who knows. All my teen mind understood was the painful awkwardness that came with that daily routine. I began to resent him deeply for this.
Strike two: like so often happens with young male teachers, many of the young girls in the class started getting crushes on him. “The injustice,” I thought. In my mind he was stealing all the attention of the girls I wished would pay attention to me. “Oh he’s got the prettiest blue eyes,” they’d say. Due to the seating arrangement I’d been close enough to realize they were contacts. This didn’t help my growing animosity.
I wanted revenge. I wanted him to feel as uncomfortable as I did. I wanted things to be awkward for him. I decided to start a rumor. It would be easy. It was his first year teaching. No one knew anything about him. Why, exactly, I chose the rumor that he was gay I’ll never know. The memories are too fuzzy. Most likely, it was because of the other way he’d “slighted me.” It wasn’t just the girls in the class that had a crush on him. I did too. That’s some heavy shit for a 13 year old guy to process. Somehow that crush I had was his fault too.
So “he’s gay” was the rumor I settled on. It took very little effort on my part. Just a few “you know what I heard…” type comments in earshot of the school’s biggest gossips. It spread like wildfire.
Here comes the first twist: “I didn’t know at the time, nor would I learn till several years later, that I was right.”
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.
But before he learned that his teacher was actually gay, he discovered some of the damage he’d done:
My younger brother told me one day, “you realize Mr. {redacted} knows who started that rumor.” I had no idea it had persisted that long. I should have known that kids are cruel and have long memories. At the time I had started it I was just lashing out. Now I realized I’d actually kind of fucked up someone’s life. I just figured he’d get married soon and the rumor would naturally go away. Too bad there was one detail I hadn’t accounted for. I still didn’t know it yet.
Related: Gay Teacher Fired After Stolen Sex Tape Is Posted On School Website
The second twist? The teen himself came to terms with being gay a few years later in high school. In fact, he was bullied relentlessly, called a faggot, and physically attacked.
He continues:
I was in high school at this point when someone outed me. I was used to people calling me a faggot etc in the halls. Apparently they never meant it literally. They just thought I was weird and it was a go to insult. Now that it was literal everything changed. People picked fights. Most I won or at least made the other guy regret starting before they were broken up. Then the phone calls started. How they got my number I’m not sure. Usually they were along the lines of “hey faggot better not come to school or you’re going to die before the end of the day.” At some point I got tired of it, and they “won.” I left high school and started taking college classes (which counted also as high school credits thus allowing me to get my diploma.)
I became an activist in college. I didn’t want other kids to go through what I went through. The irony was lost on me. Not once did it occur to me that I had caused someone else similar trouble. That was, until one break when I was visiting home.
While visiting home, a friend mentioned he saw the former teacher in the town’s local gay bar. And that’s when all the pieces finally came together.
The way it all fit together just dawned on me this morning, almost 20 years later. I had to figure out what happened to this guy. Google made short work of it. These days he appears to be working for a magazine. He’s engaged (woohoo for legal gay marriage.) He’s aged well, still attractive, funny how a 10 year difference in age seems less significant once you hit your 30s.
The funny thing was just as getting run out of high school made me into an activist, once he quit teaching he went around to schools giving presentations on not bullying people over their sexual orientations. I wonder if the accidentally true rumor had anything to do with that. Life is weird.
We definitely agree with that last point.
Related: Nine-Year-Old Girl Writes Letter To Her Gay Teacher, Totally Nails It
Rodney Hom
Did he apologize?
crowebobby
Moving story. Kind of hope it’s true (for all the right reasons). But if it is, why hasn’t the “activist” author signed it.
Xzamilio
Yeah, give yourself a pat on the back at the end because everything worked out for the guy who’s life you almost ruined because of your own inability to come to terms with your orientation. I was closeted myself in school, but the empathy ends at the point where someone else is adversely affected by the inner struggles of another.
“Why, exactly, I chose the rumor that he was gay I’ll never know. The memories are too fuzzy.”
About as fuzzy as a freshly lased taint… after reading this self-serving drivel, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out exactly why you started this rumor. You weren’t jealous of him… you were jealous of all those girls taking attention away from you and your crush on your teacher (I’m assuming he’s less hot than the photo above, if Investigation Discovery is any indicator).
RomanHans
@Xzamilio: I’m with you about the self-serving drivel — now the teacher is an “activist”? How’s THAT pay? — but what kind of a–hole teacher doesn’t give one specific student a seat for A YEAR?
Xzamilio
@RomanHans: I’ve learned to take most of these kinds of stories with a grain of salt… like Whisper Sunday when you get endless posts of anonymous men hiding behind a wall of hot guys they copied and pasted from Tumblr.
John Malin
We reap what we sow, along with a bunch of weeds and other crap.
Rick Schneiter
Good for hi. He should
J.T.
Interesting story which reminded me of Lillian Bellman’s The Children’s Hour. I found his tale to be equal parts sincere and self-serving. There are still levels of self-awareness that have not been reached. One important question: why hasn’t he made amends to his former teacher? He can’t right the wrong, but an apology might help both of them
SteveDenver
@Rodney Hom: That was my question, too: did he find the former teacher and express his regret?
Guy068
@Rodney Hom: He shouldn’t and he should stay away. Apologizing would make the former student feel better and whether he means it or not, his victim would say all the right things accepting said apology. He can prove he’s sorry by paying it forward and not dredging up old pain in someone else…
Will L
What a dick. I don’t see the part where he has “learned his lesson” though. As others point out, he pats himself on the back because, 20 years later, the teacher somehow survived. And he never made amends for his behavior. Had he later apologized in person, he may have found that Google didn’t adequately reveal the actual hell that he put the guy through.
I guess the guy feels proud that he didn’t drive the teacher to suicide.
myloginname
@Guy068: I don’t necessarily agree with you. I had many bullies growing up. These were my age of course but one in particular sought me out and apologized to me 20 years after we graduated from High School. Actually I had completely forgotten about him (not other bullies mind you but I had forgotten about him) and his reminding me of the pain he caused me did indeed come rushing back. It was his sincere apology that lifted the weight of the world off of my shoulders however.
ZafiroBourdeaux
How cute would this be if the student and teacher got engaged to each other!?
glennmcbride
Remember this person was 13 years old at the time. The teacher probably doesn’t even remember him. I had someone find me on facebook to apologize for something that happened in high school and I still do not remember the person nor the incident.
Juanjo
If this man wants absolution for his wrongful act of spreading a rumor to arm a teacher, we cannot give it to him. He must seek that from the person her wronged. To attempt top argue that “it all worked out for the best” is a truly BS argument. Whatever that former teacher did to continue on and overcome the nastiness inflicted on him by this author’s act is a credit other the teacher not in any way a mitigation for the act.
I get that you were a 13 year old kid and no one expects a 13 year old kid to behave maturely. Hell I know lots of 30 years olds or even 60 year olds who cannot behave maturely. But a 13 year old is old enough to be criticized for behaving immaturely. I understand the issue over the lack of a desk. But I fail to see how that is the teacher’s fault. Is the author saying the teacher never requested a desk? There is no fact presented to indicate that the teacher was in any way responsible for the lack of a desk. Not that spreading a maliciously intended rumor is justified by refusing to provide a desk.
Russell1947
That’s Hellman, not Bellman.
Ok, the desk wasn’t the teacher’s fault, but why weren’t the parents involved?
If there really was a desk shortage, then had I been the teacher, each student would have 1 week without a desk. That way no one would feel “slighted”.
I too was closeted in school, I’ve known since I was 12 (1959), But I never bullied anyone else, or joined in, & never spread rumors. Luckily for me, my best friend was a “tough guy” who treated me like gold, & he never bullied anyone either.
nycbklyn
@RomanHans:
“If all were in attendance I would have to sit at the teachers desk ” he allowed him to sit at his desk, this happened pretty often in New York City public school when I was younger
nycbklyn
@Xzamilio: i agree 100, botina redemptive about the story, The “activist” doesn’t even see that.
dunwoodyjoey
What a dick! What a pos! I heard nothing in this story that remorse or even a slight promise not to screw up anyone else’s life. Shame.
nycbklyn
Nothing* redemptive
smoose55
I agree that the teacher was not in any way responsible for the lack of a desk. Do you really expect the 1t year teacher to go out and purchase a new desk, or build one from scrap lumber? I also think the student owns the teacher a deep heartfelt apology. He could have been fired or worst over something like that. Just goes to show you how self-centered teenagers are. And I realize they are not the only ones.
captainburrito
1 Why was he jealous that girls did not give him attention… even if he had not fully realized he was gay… why did he desire that and feel slighted for it?
2 If he was going to share that story i hope he contacted that teacher and grovelled in apology. Since he knew who it was too. If it was me it would personally gnaw away at me too so it is party for himself that he should do it too. I know as i still remember beating up a kid in pre-school and whenever i think of it i feel terrible but it was so long ago that i no longer know who he is.
Stached1
THIS NEVER HAPPENED.
It’s a copy/pasted fictional story from Reddit where 99% of the posts about people are made up.
Plus the BS about the desk doesn’t happen in schools. I could see it happening for a day or a few days; but months or the entire school year? Yeah right.
ethan_hines
It’s called Karma, we are required to experience exactly the same damage whether physical or mental done to another person at some time or another usually not in the same life time but that’s a different story. In this case it did happen in the same lifetime probably because it was an extra important lesson for his soul to learn. Here’s something to really blow your mind. The teen who started the rumor and the teacher actually agreed to this before returning to earth (being born)
Tombear
@J.T.: It’s Lillian Hellman. SHEESH!
David Dymock
Nice story but it doesn’t have a successful end. I certainly hope that teacher wasn’t his English teacher but then again it would explain the lack of ending
robertrpm1
This is one reason why I choose to teach elementary level, most middle/high school level tweens/teens are bungholes
Jim Philbrick
It’s good to see how a horrible teenager becomes a better man but he needs to apologize
onthemark
It’s not a “rumor” to say someone is gay if they are in fact gay! Is gaydar considered “bullying” now? Oh the horror. Truth is an absolute defense in defamation cases. Unless the teacher had absolutely no social life whatsoever, someone was likely to find out he was gay: not necessarily a gay 13 year old. Someone might have guessed the teacher was gay because he dressed a little too color-coordinated, or he got two football teams mixed up or something like that. Somebody always figures it out!
Also, am I the only one who thinks the teacher was a goddam monster for making the kid do without a desk for several MONTHS??? That’s crazy. If it were me I’d have skipped school for several months! My parents would’ve been annoyed but they’d have solved the damn problem. And yeah, any 13 year old would think it was personal. It probably WAS personal. If this story is real – which I doubt! – that teacher got off easy. He should have been fired for being an abusive pr1ck.
onthemark
Probably a made up story, but I’m astonished at some of these ridiculous comments:
@Jim Philbrick: “It’s good to see how a horrible teenager becomes a better man…”, barf. The poor kid, he didn’t do anything wrong, he was only 13 and was being abused by a teacher!
@smoose55: “I also think the student owns the teacher a deep heartfelt apology.” @captainburrito: “i hope he contacted that teacher and grovelled in apology.”
I hope the PR1CK teacher apologized!
WTF IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?
o.codone
@Rick Schneiter: you said,
“Good for hi. He should”.
hahaahhaahhhh. you douche.
oz1967
@Xzamilio: So this was supposed to be a moving account on how you fuck up someone’s life and hey it all worked and he is cute so its all okay in the end…what total BS
Mark Klein
Bastard
onthemark
Look at what some of you are defending here. We all spend a lot of time in these comments declaring that adults should NOT be closeted at work. Unless they happen to be teachers? Is this the sole exception now? Why? That’s not even practical. Every male older than 25 or so who’s not married to a woman, and not overtly dating women, gets suspected of being gay. If he really IS gay, he may as well come out.
Being gay and a public school teacher isn’t illegal anymore. Sure I realize it’s still not easy to DO in some places. If you’re a gay teacher in a place like that you should either (a) move elsewhere, or (b) talk confidentially with your legendarily powerful union what to do WHEN you get outed, because eventually you WILL get outed… because YOU’RE GAY, brainiac.
The kid was abused and he didn’t do anything wrong here (if we are to believe the story). He called the teacher gay. He didn’t speculate for instance as to kinky activity, etc. He merely called the teacher gay, and it’s true! Big deal. It’s not even a “rumor” when it’s true. The misleading headline seems to have confused some of you. (Advice: don’t apply to law school, guys!)
If you really ARE gay, it doesn’t “ruin your life” to get called gay. And if you think that way you’re really screwed up. I hope some of you guys get your heads out your a**es long enough to hear what your therapists are saying in your thrice-weekly sessions. There’s a lot of self-hating homophobia packed into the assumptions in these comments, like so much radioactivity in enriched uranium.
Now suddenly, Queerty assumes that every closeted teacher should just remain closeted, forever? How would that even work? How would that even be possible at a practical level? What kind of “message” is that to send to LGBT youth? F*ck that.
Greg
Yeah, I don’t buy this story. It sounds like a bad after school special from the start. I’m assuming that this was the first day of middle school. Because he was late that first day, he didn’t get to sit at a desk. He says the teacher was fresh out of college and still a rookie. How did he know that? He also says that he seemed to have it all figured out. All of what figured out? They were one desk short. It’s not that difficult to figure out that we need another desk. The teacher said he would have another desk brought up tomorrow. Why not now? Why not after school? So the second day, still no desk. He should have sat at one of the other desks. Whoever was the last to arrive would have to be singled out on the second day. Didn’t the teacher say anything Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday or Friday? The kid should have asked if he was ever going to get a desk. MONTHS went by and no desk? He says the reality of it could be that there were no desks available. But apparently the kid didn’t ask. He wanted to feel like it was a personal slight against him. If months had gone by and this was the daily routine, how could it still be awkward? After a while, it would be just how it is. Nobody would even notice that was sitting up at the teachers’s desk using a fold out board. (whatever that is). Unless the kid was a brand new student because he just moved there, he would know most of the kids in the class. His big insecurity was the need to “blend in”?? I suppose 20 years ago, that could be a desire of middle school kids. Not like the “Look at me” kids of today. I also don’t buy the “due to the seating arrangement I was close enough to tell they were contacts”. He could have been wearing contacts, but not necessarily blue contacts. So he’s close enough to see the teacher wearing contacts and also hear the girls talking about how cute the teacher is. But he failed to tell us how bulbous and firm the teacher’s ass looked every day in those snug fitting slacks, or how he would intentionally let his pencil drop to the floor whenever the teacher sat down so he could get a glance at that bulge when he went to pick it up. Instead, he was set on revenge.This kid supposedly just wanted to blend in, but then felt it was injustice the the girls crushed on the teacher and not him? He said he also had a crush on the teacher. That’s why I mentioned how the teacher’s ass looked in slacks and the bulge when the teacher sat down. He didn’t really didn’t that attention from the girls. I don’t buy the “he’s gay” rumor. With just a few “you know what I heard”. No, why doesn’t he tell us exactly what he said and to who. He’s vague about what he says but it’s supposedly within earshot of some of the school’s biggest gossips and it spreads like wildfire. Oh please. Middle school? So what happened? Did the teacher get fired immediately? For being gay? Did the kid ever get his own desk? Had the school district run out of available desks? So the rest of it is likely bullshit. If this story were true, it didn’t seem like the kid learned any lesson. When he went home and heard that the teacher was seen in gay bars and then he looked up the teacher, why didn’t he go and apologize to the teacher for being a little bitch and maybe ask him why he never got his own desk. “Life is weird” isn’t a lesson.
DCguy
Two things, If this story is true, then go apologize, don’t self aggrandize by telling us all how wonderful you are now. There is no expiration date on an apology.
Also, some things about the story don’t add up. The author made it sound like he was extremely jealous that the girls liked the teacher, but also said that he was gay and 13. The LAST thing a gay 13 year old wants is some girl all over him.
Mr.Tim
@onthemark: it’s 2016 and you can still be fired just for being gay in 32 states. This story happened 20 years ago when it was 48 states.
onthemark
@Mr.Tim: Yes for NON-union jobs, but doesn’t the highly unionized nature of public school-teaching mitigate against that? I realize that private & religious schools are in another legal category.
And still that leaves the problem of, people here are essentially condemning a 13 year old kid for… what, having gaydar? How exactly could we prevent gay kids from having gaydar? 🙁
(I realize it’s probably a made-up story anyway.)
galatians328
THE reality is that VERY MANY gay guys – who are adults – act in other-destructive and self-destructive ways AS ADULTS having learned NO MORALITY as youth, or a younger adults, and bringing horrors, havoc, and harm to people they pretend to be their ‘gay family’.
Eldon Thompson
I don’t understand why “being a teenager” is an excuse for being stupid.
Xzamilio
@oz1967: What the fuck are you talking about?
martinbakman
I believe you started the rumor, but our reasons for doing it seem…..made up?
Bauhaus
@onthemark:
I’m guessing the teacher didn’t have tenure, so the school district could dismiss him for almost any reason.
robho3
That was a real douchey thing for that kid to do. I just don’t get these in the closet gay homophobes. When I was in the closet I would never ever consider doing that to another gay person.
onthemark
@robho3: WTF is wrong with you??? The poor abused kid was 13, for one thing, and the teacher REALLY WAS GAY. What is wrong with calling a gay person who actually is gay, GAY??? What kind of self-hating homophobe are you??? WTF is wrong with you f*cked-up people???
onthemark
@Bauhaus: There used to be states that prohibited gay teachers by statute: most notoriously Florida for a long time. Those laws are a thing of the past even in Florida and the “real” south.
Just a week ago Queerty reported on that gay teacher in Arkansas who lost his job because he made a sex tape of himself, stored it in the cloud, and got hacked. (Hopefully he wasn’t a science teacher, lol… oh what am I saying, teaching science in Arkansas is probably illegal.) Even he wasn’t fired just for being GAY, he was fired for the “indiscretion.” The article implied that his gayness was known about beforehand. As some commenters here noted, he went along with the firing and could have done otherwise, he could have fought it.
In an era where hardly anyone has good unions anymore, teachers DO have good unions.
onthemark
There’s nothing legally or morally wrong with calling someone gay, who is in fact, GAY!
Get the f*ck over it. Jeez, some of you people should never leave home! Just have pizza delivered and never leave home. You guys are too fragile to ever go outside!
And you’re picking on a 13 year old kid who didn’t do anything wrong. WTF is wrong with you people???
Xzamilio
@onthemark: You get the fuck over it. You’re the only one losing his shit on here. Go cry about it on Tumblr.
onthemark
@Xzamilio: LOL – this is like trying to talk rationally to a bunch of “special needs” 13 year olds.
Some of you guys must keep your therapists very, very busy!
onthemark
On reflection, this is more like trying to have a rational discussion with a fuckin’ BRICK WALL. Except that most brick walls are smarter and more rational than some of you people. Oh well, this is probably a made up story anyway so who gives a sh1t. It’s just that the amount of dimwitted, self-hating homophobia on display here is so nauseating.
Try the mantra: It’s Not A “Rumor” If It’s TRUE… It’s Not A “Rumor” If It’s TRUE… It’s Not A “Rumor” If It’s TRUE…
Xzamilio
@onthemark: Try this mantra: Relieve the stress and click the X…. Relieve the stress and click the X… Relieve the stress and click the X. Or try this one: Move on with your life… the end.
jheryn
It was in fact spreading a rumor because the boy didn’t know the teacher was gay. He also did it with the intention of hurting the teacher thinking the teach wasn’t gay.
They did not find out the teacher was gay until much later on. It wasn’t as if the boy was stating what he knew to be fact. So yes, what the teenager did was wrong.
onthemark
@jheryn: And he was still just a teenager who was being abused by a pr1ck teacher.
*Quelle surprise*, Saint Jheryn gets this one wrong too. Someone should start a rumor that you are straight; it’s an embarrassment to LGBT people everywhere if you ARE gay! 🙂
onthemark
@Xzamilio: Well, I realize it must be a made-up story. Too many holes; it doesn’t add up. But I find some posters’ reactions disturbing.
onthemark
I hope to convince even ONE reader before this falls off Page 1? It’s depressing how many of you ignore the bad behavior of the adult in the room. The teacher’s conduct here was atrocious, I’d even say borderline sad1stic. He’s lucky all that happened to him was this minor “rumor.”
At the same time, you etiquette police want to hold a 13 year old to excruciatingly correct, prim & proper adult conduct. Sorry, pitchfork mob: kids do get somewhat of a pass just for being kids. They just DO. A 13 year old who commits an actual crime (even murder) is NOT charged as an adult, remember? Kids are held to a less stringent standard.
And this diabolical 13 year old was enough of a legal scholar to somehow *know* ahead of time that this rumor would “ruin the guy’s life”?… wow, was this kid a potential Republican appointment to the Supreme Court or what? I’m not buying that pseudo-legal bullsh*t either.
There must have been tens of thousands of gay teachers even way back in the 1970s (when I was a kid). They were protected by their unions. They weren’t fired “for being gay” every time some kid called them gay – maliciously or presciently, it matters not – which must have happened on a literally daily basis. That’s ridiculous.
jheryn
@onthemark: Even 13 year old children know it is wrong to spread rumors regardless of ultimate consequences.
The fact that you cannot convince anyone really speaks volumes. How monumentally egotistical to take the position “I’m right and everyone else is wrong.” Add to that in most threads you manage to attack others or have them get upset with your position and it amounts to you being a jerk.
What a morally bankrupt internet troll you are.
Also, clearly you have a driving need to have the last word. So go ahead and write it out, I will never see it.
Beeg Todger
@onthemark: The author. didn’t know the teacher was gay. He says he doesn’t know why he chose to use gay” as the basis for his rumour. Even at 13 years old he would have been aware of the damage a “gay rumour” about a teacher would have.
Of course it’s morally wrong to “out” someone who doesn’t wish to be outed. Even more so if you don’t know the person is gay for a certainty, which was the case stated.
By the author’s own admission his intent was malicious. Finding out after the fact is no justification.
To imply it would have been OK if the teacher was gay because he conformed to a stereotype is still not proof of orientation.
We here in Oz hear reports and stories about the woeful state of the american school system however it beggars belief that no seating arrangement could be made for this student for an entire school year. .
Beeg Todger
Why are posters here laying responsibility for this little snot’s bad behaviour on the teacher. ????
The author very clearly states that the teacher was a rookie, straight out of college,probably feeling his way through a system which is heavily weighted against him, concern about making waves in a school system where teachers are so disposable would probably be foremost in his mind.
Where the heck were the parents in all this?? Surely insuring that their child receive an education is their responsibilty.
The author is so self absorbed he’s seeking to assuage his own feelings of “guilt by confronting the target of his morally reprehensible behaviour whether an apology is warranted or not. He should leave the man alone and seek absolution elsewhere.
onthemark
@Beeg Todger: You say it yourself: “We here in Oz hear reports and stories about the woeful state of the american school system however it beggars belief that no seating arrangement could be made for this student for an entire school year.”
Yes, that’s it exactly. IF we are to believe this story (I’ve stated several times that I have doubts), the teacher was a sad1stic pr1ck. Why are people here siding with the sad1stic adult against the poor defenseless abused kid?
See my posts further above. Unless a gay male adult over the age of 25 has absolutely no social life whatsoever, he’s going to be called gay, and probably by other adults – not just by students (but them too).
As a kid in the ’70s in a lousy public school system I had several OBVIOUSLY gay teachers. Some were real “flamers,” or very dykey. Most were decent teachers, better than the average there anyway. They were CALLED gay all the time. None of them were fired just because some kid called them gay. (Eek.) That’s absurd. What is the big fucking deal here? I just don’t get it.
onthemark
@jheryn: Oh dear, I get what YOUR problem is. In your self-hating homophobic world, being gay is a bad thing, and being called gay – even when you ARE gay! – is a horrible unforgivable thing. Please seek help.
tony-e
As a kid that was the go-to attack. If you were “different” you were “gay” or a fag or some other term. And not just by kids, who are pretty much cruel by nature. Adults used the same terms, even aimed at a kid (sometimes including their own). I was called that multiple times (granted I’ve been closeted bi for as long as I can remember, sometimes missing out on someone amazing because of it) by other kids from around 6th grade (no 6th grade kid should even know the word fag, by the way), with one of said kids being the son of a school employee. Whether said kid learned that at home or not I won’t get into, not the can of worms I need to open almost 30 years later. I don’t think I actually heard anyone say that about a teacher (I heard teachers called many things, but that wasn’t one of them), but then I wasn’t exactly part of the popular crowd, who were usually the ones doing the bullying and stuff. Was it mean for that kid to start that rumor? Absolutely. And he absolutely should’ve tracked the teacher down, even after 20 years, and apologized, even if the guy didn’t remember the exact incident.
joe
Two questions.
1) did the guy apologize in a larger article.
2) if he did not want to sit at the teacher’s desk, instead of standing by the door until all the desks were taken, why didn’t he walk in and sit down? He never said there were strictly assigned seats.
ShowMeGuy
@RomanHans: Not the teacher’s job to go out and build furniture for the classroom. The school probably didn’t have any more student desks. Hell, I was in a math class that had 27 students and only 21 text books.
Don’t blame the teacher for not being God.
scotshot
@o.codone: Take a look at his FB homepage, there may be reason for his stumble.
scotshot
@Eldon Thompson: Hormones and a brain that’s not “cooked” yet.
scotshot
@galatians328: You’re making blanket accusations. Come back if and when you can post something true.