A substitute teacher has been fired after telling a fifth-grader who is soon to be adopted by two dads that being gay is “a sin.”
In a lesson the week before Thanksgiving at Deerfield Elementary School in Utah, the unnamed sub had asked the students what they were thankful for, according to one of the boy’s fathers, Dancing with the Stars dancer Louis van Amstel.
“Daniel — and I got choked up when he said it — he is thankful that he is finally being adopted by his two dads,” van Amstel said in a video on social media.
The teacher then began berating him, he said.
According to the Salt Lake Tribune, the teacher replied to the 11-year-old boy, “Why on Earth would you be happy about that?” and said, “That’s nothing to be thankful for.” She also told the class “homosexuality is wrong” and “two men living together is a sin.”
The boy didn’t even want to speak up and get the teacher in trouble, but three girls did, van Amstel said. The three girls reportedly tried to get her to stop berating him, and when she wouldn’t, they left the room to tell the principal. The teacher was reportedly escorted out of the school while still arguing her point.
Van Amstel did not immediately respond to a request for comment from BuzzFeed News.
Van Amstel said school officials called him about the incident, and that he’s very pleased with how they handled it.
“I am so proud of Daniel’s school,” he said. “Not only did they let go of the teacher, they said this woman is never going to teach in this school ever again.”
A spokesperson for the school confirmed to BuzzFeed News “that there was a situation involving a substitute.”
“The school took appropriate action that day based upon their investigation,” the school spokesperson said, declining to comment further since it is a personnel issue.
Kelly Services, the staffing agency the substitute teacher came through, told BuzzFeed News it has since fired her over the incident.
“We are concerned about any reports of inappropriate conduct and take these matters very seriously,” a spokesperson said. “We conducted an investigation and made the decision to end the employee’s relationship with Kelly Services.”
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