Teacher plays pro-gay ‘marriage’ song for 8th grade class
SOUTH LYONS, MI, November 30, 2012, (LifeSiteNews.com) – A Michigan performing arts teacher is defending her decision to play a song promoting same-sex “marriage” to her eighth grade class.
Susan Johnson says she was teaching tolerance.
Susan Johnson played the hip-hop song “Same Love” by Macklemore to students at Centennial Middle School in South Lyon, in the Detroit area.
“The right wing conservatives think it’s a decision, and you can be cured with some treatment and religion,” its lyrics state. “A certificate on paper ain’t gonna change everything, but it’s a damn good place to start.”
In a refrain, a female singer says: “I can’t change, even if I try, even if I wanted to. My love she keeps me warm.” She then quotes I Corinthians 13 that “Love is patient, love is kind.”
Johnson said a student asked her to play the song for her class. “This is one of the things in my school that we’re trying to practice and we’re trying to instill in our students is tolerance to diversity,” Johnson said.
“By using her classroom to experiment on the consciences of her students, she demonstrates her imprudence, ignorance of the court’s rulings protecting children from indoctrination, and her own selfishness for placing her values and interests above that of the parents, students, and her colleagues,” Al Kresta, host of the nationally-syndicated Catholic talk show “Kresta in the Afternoon,”told LifeSiteNews.com. “True diversity means respecting the ethical boundaries of those one serves.”
After hearing of the incident the school suspended Johnson for three days, two without pay, for not following proper protocol. Teachers are supposed to preview the clips and get permission before displaying them for students.
“[T]he instructor is to identify the curriculum benchmarks that students will complete as a result of watching the clip,” the district added. “The clip had no relationship whatsoever to the instructional class content planned for that day.”
Jay Kaplan, staff attorney for the ACLU’s LGBT project, said the organization has launched an investigation of the school district. The far-left lawyers group has issued a Freedom of Information Act request about other past incidents like Johnson’s.
A local homosexual activist group also established a Susan Johnson fund.
The district announced Friday it would reinstate Johnson’s pay but her actions “will remain in writing” in her file.
Johnson said she acted in everyone’s best interests, because “there’s a lot of bullying and there’s a lot of gay bashing and racial issues going on in our country.”
“She hides behind exaggerated claims of bullying and bigotry which are not in evidence,” Kresta said. “If in fact she is dealing with bullies, let heR deal with bullies and leave the other children to continue their good behavior.”
