Teacher quits after reading gay fairytale to class
By Will Stroude
A North Carolina elementary school teacher has quit his job following a public outry over his decision to read a gay fairytale story to his class.
25-year-old Omar Currie decided to read Dutch children’s book King & King to his third-grade class in April, after a pupil at Efland-Cheeks Elementary School told him he was being bullied and called “gay” by his classmates.
The class attracted hundreds of complaints from parents, extensive media coverage and a heated public meeting, but a school review committee upheld Currie’s use of the book twice.
“When I read the story, the reaction of parents didn’t come into my mind,” Currie told AP.
“In that moment, it just seemed natural to me to read the book and have a conversation about treating people with respect.
“My focus then was on the child, and helping the child.”
However, the openly gay teacher has now resigned form his post, after admitting that he felt intimidated and unsupported by the school’s administration, who have responded to the controversy by announcing that teachers will have to submit a list of all books they read to parents.
The school’s assistant principal Meg Goodhand, who recommend the book the Currie, has also resigned.
Currie told The Herald-Sun that the policy was “unrealistic” and would give parents the chance to remove their children from important conversations.
“I think that that’s very dangerous for a school system to get behind and support,” he said.
He explained that the policy was insulting to the school’s LGBT families who received the list.
“That’s what the letter does, it says we’re reading this book about two dads, or two mommies, I was told that it was controversial, which means all LGBQT polices are controversial,” he told the News & Observer.
“We should be ashamed of ourselves for even considering that we should be doing that because a minority of people find it offensive.”
He added: “My reading of King & King was the 100 percent right thing to do.
“There was no way I was going to have the support I needed to continue teaching [at the school].”
King & King tells the story of a crown prince who has “never cared much for princesses,” and ends up marrying another prince. The book, first published in the Netherlands, was released in the United States in 2002 and has been the subject of ongoing controversy and lawsuits over its use in schools.
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