by Scott Rose
On Spirit Day, 2010, in his Howell, Michigan public high school classroom, student Daniel Glowacki said "I don't accept gays."
Teacher Jay McDowell eventually told him he had to leave the room.
The question of whether McDowell violated Glowacki's free speech rights is presently the subject of a federal lawsuit being brought by Daniel's mother Sandra Glowacki in his name, and in the name of another of her offspring. The pleading is full of language defamatory of gays as a class of people and thus now is the subject of my request for the Attorney Grievance Commission of the State of Michigan to investigate Glowacki's attorneys.
It appears that should this lawsuit go ahead, the determinative facts might have to be ascertained from many student witnesses deposed and/or put on the witness stand under oath.
However all of that may be, Glowacki at all moments admits that in class that day, he said "I do not accept gays." The incident generated controversy in the Howell community. A few days later, Glowacki's mother told a local newspaper "The things people have been saying online about my son have been terrible." Remember; this woman's son said "I don't accept gays" on SPIRIT DAY. Remember too that the LGBT community has had to suffer actual school board members, such as Clint McCance saying that they want all "fags" to commit suicide.
Now here's where this gets REALLY interesting. Sandra Glowacki told her local paper "My son is not a bigot. He has a very diverse group of friends that includes some gays. If a gay student was being picked on in class, he’d stick up for them." Daniel Glowacki . . in this period when he was taking heat for having said "I don't accept gays" told the reporter: "I never said I was against gays."
The Spanish expression is A otro perro con ese hueso . . take that bone to a different dog.
One could speculate that Sandra Glowacki and her son Daniel alleged that Daniel accepts gays after all, perhaps in order to get the criticism then being made of him to die down.
And now, Sandra Glowacki is demanding in a federal court that McDowell and the Howell Public Schools give them MONEY . . . and I'm repeating the word so it's clear what is involved . . . . . $$$$$MONEY$$$$$ . . . for not having allowed Daniel to continue to create a classroom environment hostile against LGBTers after he said . . . (we're not yet sure how many times) . . . . but possibly more than once . . . and on Spirit Day . . "I don't accept gays."
It's enough to make somebody ask themselves "Why would people who said 'My son has gay friends' and 'I never said I was against gays' now file a lawsuit asking for $$$MONEY$$$, $$$MONEY$$$, $$$MONEY$$$ because they don't think Daniel Glowacki got a chance to say "I don't accept gays" enough times in a public high school on Spirit Day?"
Different school districts have different policies but it's hard to imagine many American schools today that would allow students to say and repeat "I don't accept Christians" or even "I don't accept African-Americans." (Note that Daniel's same high school had a notorious anti-African American incident involving students and the Confederate flag, and that the violators were disciplined). It hardly even seems likely, for example, that in an American public school, a student could say, and repeat and then repeat again, over and over and as many times as she pleased during the year "I don't accept Jesus." That statement would too likely provoke a disruption to the learning environment.
The system already "gets" why it can't have public school students saying "I don't accept Jews" and "I don't accept Mormons." But the reason controversy arises around the phrase "I don't accept gays" is that anti-gay bigots like Beverly Lahaye say hateful things such as "They are not a legitimate minority group." Look in the comments under the many right-wing Christian blogs now going into spasms over a Catholic gay basher's alleged right to gay bash, and it won't be long before you hit on anti-gay comments such as "They aren't human." And that is the tip of the ice-berg of the anti-gay vitriol. Under the Thomas More Law Center's Facebook post about the lawsuit, Glowacki supporter Rhein Krigner said "Teach that crap to my kids and I will kick your ass and stick you back in the closet." TMLC's FB page administrators left that comment up for several days while interacting with others on that same comments thread. The gay-bashing comment only disappeared from the thread after my Complaint to the Attorney Grievance Commission . . with that comment mentioned inside . . got published online.
The Glowackis' lawsuit asks for the Court to declare the Howell Public Schools' anti-bullying policy unconstitutional. That is not likely to happen, as precedent law shows that students' free speech rights in public schools are not identical to first amendment rights. One is perhaps not incorrect to opine that what's at stake in this lawsuit . . . besides $$$MONEY$$$ . .. $$$MONEY$$$ . . .$$$MONEY$$$ for the Glowackis (and their Thomas More Law Center attorneys, who are busy waving the Complaint document under anti-gay bigots' noses to attract donations, even though papers have not yet been served on the Defendants) . . is whether American society is ready to think that LGBTers are really human and a legitimate minority.
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