Reinstate Mr. Thomas Leahy
Contact the author of the petition
Re:
You could not have stated this any better! Conway Springs IS better than this and I believe it will show on Monday.
-CSHS Alumni
Re:
A better statement could not have been made. It is the school boards decision, not Clay Murphy's. I wish some of them would man up and admit that they jumped the gun and made a huge mistake. I don't think they ever expected Tom to stand up for himself, or that he had so much support.
I signed because it's the right thing to do. Our young people are being bullied and taking their own lives. Mr. Leahy, although, yes he should have gotten it cleared, had all the right intentions and getting students to talk about bullying and how their actions effect others, can very well safe a life or two. We need to think outside the box and that's what Mr. Leahy did.
Any district that would strip someone of their position as educator for showing this film, is a district that should be ashamed. What is that district seeking to promote? How can reasonable people seek to fire someone for attempting to inspire positive change? And YES, no matter what you believe about homosexuality, being empathetic and compassionate...choosing the path that doesn't bully or ruin lives...THAT is a path of positive change.
I can't see how any decent being would have a problem with this video. I can understand that there may be some consequences involved due to the push back from the parents. (Although, I would be ashamed to be one of those parents.) But, for him to lose his job when he was CLEARLY taking the path of wisdom and compassion...that is beyond wrong. He was brave enough and cared enough to make an attempt to make a difference. Conway Springs should be so ashamed. I am sincerely glad I don't have students there...or I would choose to remove them.
To his gay students, or those with homosexual friends and family members, this teacher will forever be a hero. And the school district will forever be a disappointing failure.
I pray that reason will be found and win out. We NEED educators who will stand in the storm and seek to shield those that need shielding the most. We NEED people who are brave enough to do what is right for their students. And turning a blind eye to discrimination helps no one. The bullied spiral into a deeper feeling of insignificance and desperation, and the bullies grow into uglier and more dysfunctional creatures. SOMEONE must stand up and say, "Hey, you don't have to agree with everyone else, but you DO need to show them some respect. And MAYBE if you can put yourselves in their shoes for just a few minutes, you can choose to relate to them in a more appropriate and PRODUCTIVE way." And isn't that what we're here for? We teach to make the world a better place one student and one act at a time...
I applaud Mr Leahy who spotted the issues and dealt with them to open the minds of his students to the issues and repecussions of bullying/suicide/low self esteem. The parents should be thanking him not this.
Be better people than this please.
Though he should have warned what was to come in the video, I think his heart was in the right place. Punish him for not aquiring permission slips, not for spreading tolerence and anti-bullying. That offence is not worthy of this kind of punishment. If he does resign, I hope he comes to Oklahoma and becomes a teacher. We need someone like him here.
Re:
Right on. Being a bully victom of the same circumstances, I commend you. Thank you for being in your child's life.
I signed the petition, because I am a hidden LGBT student, who has gone through similar experiences. Homosexuality was called a disease, sin, disgusting, and other words I don`t want to repeat. In these situations, I wished I had a teacher who would have said anything to make them stop. But I did not have a teacher like Mr. Thomas Leahy, so it all ended up with me being at home crying.
I'm not gay myself, but have several friends who are LGBT, many of whom go to church, so claiming it's a religious right to bully and discriminate won't excuse this either...plus in the Bible, and I mention this because it's Kansas where this school board is, Jesus said there were only two important commandments, Love God and Love one another. Those kids weren't doing that, therefore he was teaching Biblical Principles, which, although illegal in today's society...you should be proud of, being in the Bible Belt.
The video that was shown sad and portrays so much truth but I can't imagine making a teacher resign over it. Kids need to understand that bullying is NOT okay regardless of the sexual orientation and/or religion of the person doing the bullying. This could easily have been shown as straight kids bullying the gay kid or associated with Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu or any other beliefs or religion for that matter. Would these parents have been upset then? What the outcome of showing this video is now showing is that it's okay to be a bully as these parents are getting their way by bullying this teacher out of his job. You never know if this video saved someones life or made a student think twice about how they've been treating someone. We as parents should be thankful there are teachers out there that are willing to stand up for what is right and help teach this concept to our children as well. There are too many people out there any more who just brush the bullying under the rug or deny that it's even happening. We need more advocates like Mr Leahy!
Its Jane Elliot A Class Divided all over again . The day after Martin Luther King Jr was shot the teacher divided her class up and gave half brown collars. Then proceeded to discriminate against the kids with the collars. She did that activity with her THIRD graders so they could FEEL what it was like to be discriminated against. She did not lose her job she did the same activity 2 more times. Its not right that this teacher is being punished for trying to help his students see things from another point of view and teach empathy.
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