Last month, a Wyoming high school football coach passed out a fake handout for reporting bullying to his players. The document, called the "Hurt Feelings Report," offers a variety of offensive options to indicate the reasons for filing the report such as "I am a cry baby," "I want my mommy," and "I am a queer."
Parents were angry. The school board had to take action, and did.
Coach Pat Lynch of Buffalo High School in Wyoming was forced to resign from his coaching position last week. However the school board allowed him to remain in his position of guidance counselor, under supervision.
Do you think it was the right decision to let Lynch remain on as a school guidance counselor? What would have been the right course of action following this incident? If you are a parent, would you want your child receiving guidance from him?
No way, no how
This man can't possibly be effective as a guidance counselor, or as any school staff member, for that matter. His toxic attitudes and homophobia can only harm the students he serves as well as the overall climate of the school. It's precisely this kind of hostile environment that will invite more suicides of young people who have been bullied. Young people should believe that if they are being harmed at school, they can comfortably report it and someone will take it seriously. If you were a student at this school witnessing the administration's response to the incident, would that build your confidence that "someone will take it seriously"? I think not. I don't think it's a coincidence that this is the same state (Wyoming) where the horrific hate crime case of Matthew Shepard occurred in 1998.
This is a case of
This is a case of administrators not going far enough. Yes, they should have fired this guy from his position as football coach. But they should have also fired him from his regular duties as well. Can you imagine a student who has been bullied going into THIS guy's guidance office?
The administration's actions here are laughable and serve to only perpetuate the perception that teachers simply can't be fired. If ever there was a case to made that somone's actions have caused their superiors to completley lose faith in their ability to do their job, than this is it. Especially in the wake of the Penn State scandal, I don't see how school leaders can let a football coach off the hook with a relative slap on the wrist.