News
2005-10-20
Bisexual teacher
sues former school district
A bisexual
fifth-grade teacher has sued his former school district,
claiming that administrators harassed him and forced him to
A bisexual
fifth-grade teacher has sued his former school district,
claiming that administrators harassed him and forced him to
quit. Emmit Hancock, a former teacher at Willow Oaks
Elementary School in Menlo Park, Calif., sued the
Ravenswood City School District last week, seeking
unspecified monetary damages.
In his October 13
filing in Santa Clara County superior court, the
27-year-old teacher said the harassment started after he
told his students about his sexuality. Hancock said he
wanted to stop them from shouting gay slurs at each
other on the playground. They later asked him to
explain why he liked men. "They wanted to know why, why do I
love somebody of the same gender?" Hancock said. "I
tried to change the subject as quickly as possible."
When parents
complained, Hancock said, he was told to resign. The
district's attorney said Hancock was not forced out and the
district did nothing wrong. San Mateo County counsel
Tim Fox said Hancock resigned in January because his
educational philosophy was at odds with what
administrators wanted. "He may think some things happened to
him because he is gay," Fox said, "but in reality it
happened for other reasons." (AP)
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