Principal Threatens His Own Student for Showing Support for Gay-Straight Alliance

Change.org has a petition on this. http://tinyurl.com/3jh7rht

Law suit? Let students wear clothes that express their opinion?  What about charges for risk of injury to a minor and assault and battery. 

Okay, this is just getting gross now. It doesn’t matter what you do to gay kids and their supporters, you can always count on Hemant publicly calling for the oppressors to keep their jobs. You know what another term for “forced public apology” is? “Slap on the wrist.” This man used his authority to physically bully a teenager. He shouldn’t get a slap on the wrist; he should be in jail.

Wow, assaulting a child. If that doesn’t prove who the big man now is then what does? 

I’m sure he is a good Christian who goes to church every Sunday

Leia:

I think you and a few other people misunderstood Hemant’s point.  He said “But I don’t think they should fire him just yet… ” 

I think he proposed loud and spectacular lesson for such bullies by making him to issue public apology and fire and criminally prosecute him afterwards.

Jail is a bit of a stretch. Fire him, give him administrative leave is fine. Having him issue a public apology to Sigler and reiterating the school policy against bullies is good. It addresses the issue and conforms to public apology trends. 

However, Demanding that he publicly sign the papers giving the GSA approval to form at the high school and forcing him to attend their first year’s worth of discussions is as much bullying him and imposing our ideas on him as he was doing to the student. Now WE become the same bullies we are standing up against.

I think we need to maintain focus on the issue of tolerance and not allow ourselves to be sidetracked and loose our sense of reason (the philosophical foundation of the Atheist movement), by compulsive, emotional demands like those above.

I’m betting he won’t sign the apology if he knows he’s getting fired anyway.

You can charge him, but for a first offense and given that no one was physically injured, he’d likely get probation at best. Which, frankly, would be enough to teach him a lesson

What the principal did was horrible, and far out-of-line for the simple wearing of a GSA shirt, or, for that matter, any situation.  I understand Hemant’s opinion, but honestly I wouldn’t be surprised if this principal has been and/or would be similarly violent in other situations.  I’m with the ‘public apology, plus firing’ contingent, *if* they can get the principal to apologize (which I’m not so sure of).  Criminal charges and a requirement that he take anger management classes (I know, they’re not always effective) would be appropriate.   I don’t like the idea of him being able to work with children at all, ever, though I suppose some fundie school will be sympathetic and happy to have him.

 I’m with Val….

Seriously, I’m a pacifist… but a school official assaults MY child?  Prison’s the safest place for them.  I’m going off on that SOB.  I wouldn’t be calling the ACLU, I’d be calling the P.O.L.I.C.E.

Jail time’s up to the judge and jury.  But I’m prosecuting, you betcha.

 This.

Hemant, wait till you’re a parent.  Not every issue is best handled by PR.

If the allegations are true (and we must wait for a jury to decide this) this guy should never, EVER be allowed to work with children again.  He doesn’t need ‘sensitivity lessons’.  He needs to be away from children for the rest of his working life.

The principal assaulted a student.  He should be terminated and arrested (preferably during school hours, complete with perp walk) immediately.  The only reason this wouldn’t change anything is if part of the restitution process intentionally did not include changes…and I doubt the ACLU is going to allow that.

I’d pull my child from school until he was gone and encourage others to do the same.

This is why we need tougher laws protecting kids. Whether or not he would end up in jail does not change my opinion on whether or not he should. 

Yeah, he’d probably get a slap on the wrist, but good luck getting another job in education with a conviction for assault on a minor on your rap sheet. The bigger problem is getting the court to convict on the word of a student and his sister against a principle.

So how long until Moser is caught with a wide stance in the airport restroom or with a rent boy lifting his luggage?

I’m not sure how making him apologize could possibly send a stronger message to whoever replaces him and the rest of the district than firing him.  These meaningless penalties don’t change anything. He should be fired because no one who assaults a student should be supervising students. He should be legally prosecuted for the crime he committed as well. Meanwhile his supervisor at the district level should apologize and insure that the group is started at the school and district policy should be rewritten as needed to allow GSAs expressly and to include sexual orientation in anti bullying standards. Then the judge can force the principle to attend the group’s meetings. With appropriate supervision to insure the safety of the students. 

From the school’s webpage (http://sites.google.com/site/sequoyahwebsqhs/home): “Mission Statement: Our mission is to provide a safe, educational environment with academic and technical programs that will prepare each student to enter post-secondary institutions and/or the work force upon graduation.”

Maybe it’s time to start a letter writing campaign expressing disgust with Mr. Moser’s behavior.  Contact phone numbers and email addresses are at http://sites.google.com/site/sequoyahwebsqhs/contact-us.

I once had a bully vice principal. Caught me running through the hallway and gave me shit. Of course, when the bully that was chasing me caught up, he just looked at him and said “well, you probably had a good reason for chasing him.” He also gave me shit for limping around when I tore a ligament in my foot at a school event. I’m convinced some people working in elementary and middle schools do it simply for the satisfaction of bossing around kids.

Physical assault on a student? Verbal abuse? He’d better be out of a job and in jail ASAP. And if that student had been my son, the principal would have had his ass kicked big time. *fuming that I CAN’T kick that bastards ass*

I think this is great to see people standing up for what they believe against those in authority. This kid needs to be recognised for his strength and determination.

Way to go Chris!!!!

Exactly.  If the truth is as described, this guy should be in jail.

Yup, I noticed that, too… what a judicious way of saying that the kid is lying.

Oh please! Drama queen much? What the jack ass did was wrong, and he should be punished for it. But I’m getting real sick and tired of complete puss wads trying to define every single thing as a class one “assault”. It degrades people who actually suffer real assaults. 

I fell asleep in history class once and my professor a football coach who would get real excited while he thought, walked up and while never breaking out of his excited speech about some battle knocked me clean out of my desk and into the wall while yelling “boom” about something blowing up. I woke up hitting the wall and started laughing! Everyone thought he was one of the best teachers and that was the best thing to happen in that class, me included. Sadly I guess had you been there you would have called the cops, had him arrested, me forced into counseling and you would still be crying about it to this day.

I don’t at all dispute that its suspicious as hell, and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the story was entirely true. I’m just looking at it from a legal perspective, in terms of how easy/hard it would be to convict him of assault.

Think of it this way. If a guy is a murder suspect and the victim has been meticulously washed and police find that the suspect has cleaned every inch of his house with bleach, it looks damn suspicious. Sadly, it also eliminates the physical evidence, making conviction much harder. This principal did something that looked suspicious as hell, but in doing so he eliminated eyewitnesses (other than the sister) that could force the hand of the police or the school district in terms of charges/firing.

I still think the fucker deserves to be fired because even if he didn’t lay a hand on the boy there’s more than enough evidence that he’s trying to oppress and bully GLBT students and allies on campus, which is totally unacceptable in its own right.

I can see calling a disruptive student out of a class and taking him/her to the office for a further discussion. Bur – ordering all the other students and the teacher out of the classroom? For wearing a t-shirt with an innocuous message? This guy doesn’t have the judgement or impulse control to work with kids. He’s a classic bully and it is no wonder none of the teachers would sponsor the GSA. If this isn’t a topic for the It Gets Better Project, I don’t know what is.

I’ve never liked the “Wait till you’re a parent.” line.  Its essentially saying you think the person in question doesn’t have the mental capacity to sympathize with the unique needs of children, simply because they don’t actually have any children themselves.

What ludicrous condescending and dismissive thinking.  It’d be like telling Hemant to “Wait till you’re gay.” or “Wait till you’re white.” or “Wait till you’re a woman.” whenever he discusses homophobia, race, and gender issues.  If we continue this line of thinking it could apply to pretty much any important issue he discusses on this site.

Yet no one ever says that about those things.  Its okay for him to have an opinion on those things, despite not being any of those things, because its recognized that we all have the capability of learning to understand and sympathize with the unique needs of different people.

But how to treat children he gets no say because he’s not a parent?  Even though he’s an educator who’s dedicated a large portion of his life to providing guidance, mentorship, and furthering the knowledge of the children under his care?

If he’s got any issues here, its being too empathetic with other educators.

With the power dynamics in play, whether true or not a student’s publicized accusation alone can often be enough to destroy an educator’s career, it makes sense to have a healthy dose of skepticism whenever a student levels a charge against a teacher.  Now imagine if you’re a teacher who also happens to be an Atheist activist and published author, I’m sure that some parents would be *extremely* happy to have someone like that fired.  Is it really so hard to understand he’s going to have a lot of sympathy, and stress the need for rationality and restraint, for teachers accused of wrongdoing?

Right now only the student and his family are talking, the principal hasn’t had his say yet.  We should make sure to have all the facts before we start screaming the equivalent of “Why won’t someone think of the children, now off with his head!”.  /* Note:  I know you said as much as above, but it does bear repeating. */

That being said I don’t agree with Hemant’s assessments in terms of punishment.  Fired?  Sure.  Public Apology?  Sure.  Last official act being the signing of the paper work accepting the creation of the GSA?  Sure.  But after that, get him the hell away from the students.  No teen struggling over their sexual identity is *ever* going to feel safe in a school run by this man, let alone be willing to talk about their sexuality with him in the room.

And I agree with you.

What I was discussing was jail time for the principal and how I don’t think its warranted in this case based on the current evidence.  Right now we only have the student and his sister’s word that this is what happened.  To paraphrase your response, the principal would have to be insane to do something like that with a witness in the room.

Did he touch him.  Probably.  Repeatedly?  I don’t know, though it is telling that the student didn’t appear to be physical harmed (you can bet *that* would have been covered in the news story).  I think its going to end up somewhere in between and will probably look a lot like a parent restraining an unruly child at the grocery store.

Is that acceptable behaviour for a principal to take.  Absolutely not, unless as you said above they were breaking up a fight (and its bullshit that some districts will say you’re not even allowed to do that much).  But the question was whether or not its worth jail time.

Based on the evidence and lack thereof and the fact that this is likely going to end this guy’s career — ensuring that he never sets foot in that school again — I’m going to say no.

This overgrown punk has a serious problem.  Regardless of how criminal or civil procedures go, he should be fired immediately and banned from working with children in any capacity. The school board can then be held accountable to come up with a replacement who will take the school in a positive direction. The public will be watching.

I suggest that Maurice should get a job tending sheep in some remote, unpopulated place. Not the figurative, Christian kind of sheep, but Ovis aries, the four-legged, wooly kind. I’m sure he’ll be happier psychologically, socially, and sexually.

It might be argued that he did it “in order to maintain discipline and order,” but it certainly was not “for good cause.”

Judging by most of the replies here, parenthood makes you a vindictive, violent asshat.

Thanks, but no thanks.

Would that be Fox “News”? 

Student who was subjected to physically dominant behavior from teacher grows up to be the kind of adult who calls people puss wads anonymously on the internet. Rebuttal writes itself.

AWWWW sorry to burst your little straw man bubble, but I wasn’t a hypersensitive ninny long before I got into hight school. And not because my parents where mean or abusive, they just let me play on the playground that had gravel, and jump off the high dive.

PS. read the next story… THAT is an “assault”.

Your coach sounds like he was an ass. Mine teacher however never would have done that (wasn’t my “coach” since I didn’t play football), he was a great role model. And if you had read the story you could see that I wasn’t hurt in any way, so the comparisons you make are false. Unless you equate breaking ones ankle and horsing around in class as the same thing, than I would have no idea how to explain reality to you.

Not surprisingly this was kept quiet here in East TN. Just so you know there is a reason we nicknamed Monroe Co, Moron county.