Howell Student Disputes Account Of Classroom Incident

Dan82 · Oct 29, 2010

http://www.whmi.com/news/article/11114

A Howell High School student accused of making anti-gay remarks in a classroom is defending his actions. Student Dan Glowacki says he was the student involved in a dispute last week with Economics Teacher Jay McDowell during a class discussion on Spirit Day that focused on anti-gay bulling. It has no relation to the SPIRIT group, or Student Problem Identification & Resolution of Issues Together, that was formed at the high school last year to promote acceptance of differing views among students. Glowacki says McDowell makes a girl that sits in front of him take off her Confederate flag belt buckle everyday, and he questioned how the girl wearing the buckle was any different from a gay student wearing a rainbow shirt. He alleges that McDowell then spoke about the Confederate flag and what it represents including discrimination. Glowacki says he mentioned his Catholic beliefs, at which point McDowell told him to leave his class if he was really against gays, so Glowacki says he left. The situation was resolved between McDowell and Glowacki’s mother the day of the incident but after it was reported that McDowell had been suspended for a day without pay over the incident, he sent an email to the district's teachers, which was later posted on Facebook, publicly explaining his account of the situation. Glowacki’s mother feels that e-mail portrays her son as a bigot and says he would’ve stood up for a gay person if that’s who was being harassed. Meanwhile, the district yesterday addressed the overall issue of the confederate insignia and how staff should deal with students that may wear or display it. The email, which may be viewed below, says overall, staff should not make an issue out of it unless it causes a substantial disruption with school activities of the districts educational mission. McDowell declined comment to WHMI on this story. (JM/JK)

http://www.whmi.com/news/article/11114
Click to expand...

Howell Student Disputes Account Of Classroom Incident

Dan82 Full Member

Dan82
Full Member