Georgia Mom Wants Teachers Fired for Homophobic Bullying of Her Son

Two middle-school teachers in Georgia were briefly suspended for teasing a student they perceived to be gay, but his mother wants them fired.

Jean Mott told Atlanta TV station WSB this week that her 14-year-old son came home from Shiloh Middle School in tears one day in December because of the taunting. He had been absent for a few days, and when he returned to school, one teacher told him, "Your boyfriend was cheating on you while you were away. Oh, you two make a really good couple," Mott said. One of the teachers also accused Mott's son of chasing boys around the school, she said. Students then picked up on the comments and started teasing the boy as well.

An investigation at the school, located in Snellville, an Atlanta suburb, found that the teachers had indeed made inappropriate comments, WSB reports. They were each suspended for two days. Mott, however, said that's insufficient punishment and the teachers should be fired. She confronted the teachers about why they made the remarks, but they did not give her an answer, she said.

A second investigation, by the Georgia Professional Standards Commission, is under way. The commission has the power to invalidate teaching certificates if it concludes that's necessary. Mott's position is that no further investigation is needed.

"I cannot allow these teachers to go out and do this to anybody else's child," she said. "They initiated the bullying. As a result, my son has been bullied by his peers, and it's something he'll never live down."