Principal 'outs' gay student

[Freddie Stubbs]

Source: South Florida Times

POMPANO BEACH — Blanche Ely High School principal Karlton O. Johnson, accused of “outing” a gay student and threatening to suspend her and her gay friend for holding hands on campus, is coming under fire for his actions.

Broward County Commissioner Kristen Jacobs, who represents Pompano Beach, where the school is located, learned of the incident after reading a story posted Monday on the South Florida Times Web site.

“I am outraged,” Jacobs said in an interview Tuesday. “Holding hands is the one thing that is completely acceptable in our society.”

Jacobs met with Johnson Tuesday to express concern and seek an explanation.

Read more: http://www.sfltimes.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=7117&Itemid=1

[Demeter]

1. Well,

Who will give me odds that he NEVER gets fired, or even reprimanded?

[CanonRay]

2. Maybe, but I'm smelling bigtime lawsuit.

[patricia92243]

3. "Outing" a person is unacceptable behavior. The gay person is the ONLY one to make that decision.

[Exultant Democracy]

16. What is they "gay person" in question is a big time Republicans that makes hay out of gay bashing?

[Posteritatis]

28. At that point there'a an additional layer of hypocrisy on top of the preexisting scumminess.

Not really a fan of holding others to a higher set of standards than I use for my own behaviour.

[CBGLuthier]

4. Harumph!!

[Angry Dragon]

6. Don;t forget the big french they had

[damntexdem]

12. They didn't have a big french --

they had a big freedom. ;-)

[CoffeeCat]

5. There are plenty of terrific principals...

...but there are many who are nothing but bullies with power.

This principal is a sick bully who needs to be taught a few things. I really despise
people in positions of authority and power, who abuse that power. They need to be smacked
back, and smacked back hard, when they use their jobs or status to bully others.

This is a lesson for the entire school. All of those kids will be watching and learning, "Is it
ok to bully people and to abuse people when you attain power, or is this behavior that will get
you into trouble?"

Our kids deserve better than to have the school led by a very dysfunctional bully.

[JAnthony]

25. Agreed Our kids deserve better! n/t

[gratuitous]

7. I'm probably missing something

But if the student in question was on campus, holding hands with her gay friend, was she really "outed"? Certainly the principal is out of bounds with the suspension threat, but if the two young people were wont to hold hands enough that even the principal noticed, their orientation was probably no secret.

[WillParkinson]

8. The one kid had not told her mom...

The principal took care of that for her.

[Steerpike]

9. Damn!

That principal is an asshat!

[gratuitous]

10. Ah, thanks

The page didn't want to seem to load for me.

[HillbillyBob]

13. About 15 20 yrs ago in FtLaud we had a sheriff that would

raid gay bars, take names/add/ place of work hold them overnight then publish and in the paper And call these folks family/work/church and out them.

I can't remember his name, but he looked like Gen Noriega, its been a while but I think he was brought up on corruption charges..

[Freddie Stubbs]

15. Nick Navarro

[Name removed]

11. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[alp227]

14. Let's out that stupid principal from his job for his outrageous, egregious abuse of power n/t

[thelordofhell]

17. Principal will be found in same-sex tryst in 3.......2......1...........

[joeglow3]

18. What are the facts of the case?

I cannot get the story to load.

Our high school did not allow anyone to hold hands, as it was deemed to be a distraction. Was this a principal enforcing a similar rule, that led to the outing or was he a dick who did it simply because they were gay?

[KittyWampus]

22. Principal doesn't discipline straight couples for holding hands. He'd warned these two before but

since he didn't say anything to straight couples, the two young ladies continued their hand holding.

For now, the higher ups seem to be saying that the principal is allowed to set policies like this. At least that's what I got from reading the article.

[joeglow3]

24. Okay, then he is an asshat.

Thanks!

[BadgerKid]

19. Further detachment from each other

is one of the last things our society needs.

[Jkid]

20. Does this principal wants a lawsuit?

What if the two people victimized was straight males?

[buckrogers1965]

21. You can't hold hands in school now?

What the hell is the world coming to that two friends can't hold hands or even hug? So is no hand shaking allowed either?

[Posteritatis]

27. You'd be surprised

One here decided that any physical contact might be violence, so instead of allowing staff to think they'd do things like suspend students who helped someone up if they fell down. That was a little extreme, but not too out there in terms of the pants-wetting terror of lawsuits that most schools have these days.

[adigal]

23. How can he out her if she is holding hands in public?

Which is the only rational reason it would have been banned. This doesnt make sense at all. If true, however, he should be sued, for sure, and maybe fired. Unless he did it accidentally, thinking everyone knew already. I am not sure why he would be talking about a kid's sexuality anyway, however.

[Marrah_G]

26. He outed the girl to her parents