Jerry Buell, the teacher who wrote on Facebook that same sex marriage almost made him throw up, wrote on his school’s syllabus,  “I am a man of God and I try to be like Jesus every day. I teach God’s truth, I make very few compromises.” On his personal website, Buell wrote,  “I try to teach and lead my students as if Lake Co. Schools had hired Jesus Christ himself.”
“I’m watching the news, eating dinner, when the story about New York okaying same sex unions came on and I almost threw up,†Buell had written on his Facebook wall last month, which sparked a nationwide discussion on the rights of teachers to say what they want — but not a nationwide discussion on the rights of LGBT students to feel safe in the classroom.
“If they want to call it a union, go ahead,” Buell added on Facebook. “But don’t insult a man and woman’s marriage by throwing it in the same cesspool as same-​sex whatever! God will not be mocked. When did this sin become acceptable???â€
As The New Civil Rights Movement reported, Buell was back in class Wednesday, pending a list of directives the school board wants him to address.
Local Florida station WFTVÂ has a video on the story, and reports,
Buell told WFTV that he doesn’t understand what the problem is all of the sudden, because he’s used the same syllabus for years.
“The school district is saying that might run a foul to what they call the separation of church and state,” said Buell’s attorney Harry Mihet. “We are going to have to evaluate the schools position and engage them in some dialogue.”
But he and his client believe the First Amendment makes the comments Okay.
Americablog editor John Aravosis wrote, in response to an L.A. Times editorial about Buell,
“I think the Times is far too flippant when it suggests that maybe some gay students might be uncomfortable, but hey, kids are used to teachers having a different point of view:
It could be argued that Buell’s comments might make gay and lesbian students uncomfortable in his class. In truth, high school students know quite well that many of their teachers are likely to hold radically different opinions from theirs.
“Really? Black kids are used to having teachers who throw up when they think of a white person marrying someone black? I don’t think so. I think that teacher would be fired if they said black people made them viscerally sick to their stomach. Same thing if the teacher said it about Christians. The man’s views on civil rights – especially such visceral, ugly views – are not the kind of thing kids are used to knowing about their teachers. The differences kids usually have with their teachers are based on clothing tastes and how you interpret a poem.”