Middle School Teacher Disciplined After Showing Gay Rights Rap Video in Class

I pity the teacher and the school if this crap is EVER showed to my son!

A North Carolina teacher was disciplined for showing a music video supporting gay rights to a middle school class last week.

The Taylorsville Times reported Alexander County Schools Associate Superintendent Dr. Jeff Peal said the teacher is back to work this week but showed “an inappropriate video…outside the bounds of the curriculum” that merited “disciplinary action.”

The rap video was Macklemore & Ryan Lewis’ “Same Love,” which was written in collaboration with Seattle-based singer-songwriter Mary Lambert. It appeared on Macklemore & Ryan Lewis’ debut album “The Heist” in 2012.

“Same Love” single cover. (Image via Wikimedia)

The video was shown to a class at West Alexander Middle School, but Peal declined to tell the Times the grade level or name the teacher. Peal also did not detail what the discipline for the teacher entailed.

Here’s a sample of some of the lyrics from the song:

When I was in the third grade I thought that I was gay,
‘Cause I could draw, my uncle was, and I kept my room straight.
I told my mom, tears rushing down my face
She’s like “Ben you’ve loved girls since before pre-k, trippin’ ”
Yeah, I guess she had a point, didn’t she?
Bunch of stereotypes all in my head.
I remember doing the math like, “Yeah, I’m good at little league”
A preconceived idea of what it all meant
For those that liked the same sex
Had the characteristics
The right wing conservatives think it’s a decision
And you can be cured with some treatment and religion
Man-made rewiring of a predisposition
Playing God, aw nah here we go
America the brave still fears what we don’t know
And God loves all his children, is somehow forgotten
But we paraphrase a book written thirty-five-hundred years ago
I don’t know

(chorus)

And I can’t change
Even if I tried
Even if I wanted to
And I can’t change
Even if I tried
Even if I wanted to
My love
My love
My love
She keeps me warm
She keeps me warm
She keeps me warm
She keeps me warm

It’s not the first time a middle school teacher has been disciplined for the song either. Last year, a Michigan teacher was suspended for allowing a student to play the song during a performing arts class. Macklemore, the ACLU and others came to the teacher’s defense and her suspension without pay was later reversed.

Middle School Teacher Disciplined After Showing Gay Rights Rap Video in Class
Liz Klimas
Tue, 10 Sep 2013 17:06:50 GMT