Fired High School Teacher
[This is an excerpt from Dan Savage's Savage Love column of June 2, 2010. I'm sharing it because it's pretty horrifying to think that a teacher could be fired for being involved in a consensual sexual relationship with another adult human being and for no other reason.]
HEY, EVERYBODY: Jason Robinson is-was-the football coach at Mandarin High School in Duval County, Florida. He was fired last month for sending “adult-oriented pictures” to a student. He didn’t send the pictures to one of his students, but to a 20-year-old college student who just so happens to be his girlfriend. The mother of Robinson’s girlfriend found the pictures on her daughter’s phone and forwarded them to the principal of the school where Robinson worked, among scores of other people.
“We hold our teachers to a higher standard,” principal Donna Richardson told reporters. “They’re in front of our students. They’re talking with our students. They’re teaching our students how to become good characters.”
This is sex-negative bullshit. Robinson is a consenting adult; Robinson’s girlfriend is a consenting adult. And what consenting adults do on their own time-and with their own cell phones-is no one’s business but their own.
Savage Love readers stuck up for Constance McMillen after she was victimized by the homophobic morons who run her high school. Now we need to stick up for a straight high-school coach being victimized by the sexphobic morons who run his. People shouldn’t lose their jobs after their privacy has been invaded, and people shouldn’t be punished for engaging in private, consensual sex acts. Send an e-mail to Donna Richardson at richardsod@duvalschools.org. Let her know she is in the wrong. And let others know to let her know.
HEY, EVERYBODY: Jason Robinson is-was-the football coach at Mandarin High School in Duval County, Florida. He was fired last month for sending “adult-oriented pictures” to a student. He didn’t send the pictures to one of his students, but to a 20-year-old college student who just so happens to be his girlfriend. The mother of Robinson’s girlfriend found the pictures on her daughter’s phone and forwarded them to the principal of the school where Robinson worked, among scores of other people.
“We hold our teachers to a higher standard,” principal Donna Richardson told reporters. “They’re in front of our students. They’re talking with our students. They’re teaching our students how to become good characters.”
This is sex-negative bullshit. Robinson is a consenting adult; Robinson’s girlfriend is a consenting adult. And what consenting adults do on their own time-and with their own cell phones-is no one’s business but their own.
Savage Love readers stuck up for Constance McMillen after she was victimized by the homophobic morons who run her high school. Now we need to stick up for a straight high-school coach being victimized by the sexphobic morons who run his. People shouldn’t lose their jobs after their privacy has been invaded, and people shouldn’t be punished for engaging in private, consensual sex acts. Send an e-mail to Donna Richardson at richardsod@duvalschools.org. Let her know she is in the wrong. And let others know to let her know.