High School teacher accused of anti-gay remark

[kpete]

Source: Sun Times

Geneva High School teacher accused of anti-gay remark
GENEVA | Gay high school student wants him fired

October 13, 2009
BY PAUL DAILING Beacon-News

A Geneva High School teacher is being accused of making anti-gay and racist comments in his classroom.

Dave Burk, who teaches consumer education, is accused of making the comments by his students during an Oct. 5 lecture on tax money involving the National Endowment for the Arts.

"How would you feel about your tax dollars going to pay some black fag in New York to take pictures of other black fags?" Burk allegedly asked, according to student Jordan Hunter.

Burk's attorney, D.J. Tegeler, said Monday he was not personally aware of the terms Burk used to his classes, but that Burk apologizes for any offense.

Read more: http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/1821529,CST-NWS-teacher13.article

[KamaAina]

1. Surely he meant to say "black flag"...

:sarcasm:

[KansDem]

25. Sure. It's probably some kind of avant-garde consumer art movement...

Imagine a whole gallery filled with these:

[Q3JR4]

37. Or black fig.

Q3JR4.
Mmmm... Juicy juicy fig.

[No Elephants]

41. Half or quarter them, stick them under the broiler till they caramelize, then wrap a bit of

prosciutto around them. Eat "a capella" or with a bit of crusty Italian or French bread.

Mmmmmmm.

[Stand and Fight]

2. Happy to be the first to recommend this.

We have to expose all of the vile ugliness of these bastards to the world -- raise the carpet and let the blinding light shine on these nasty little cockroaches. Good grief! Homophobia and racism... :wtf:

[ingac70]

3. What kind of asshole thinks it is ok....

to talk like that to children?

[SemiCharmedQuark]

4. Wow.

I had a chem prof that used racist slang. He would preface with a "Go ahead and report me. *I* believe in free speech". But nothing as bad as this.

[The Second Stone]

15. Yet he would punish any student

who did the same thing.

[Hepburn]

5. Holy shit.....

...is that ever out of line! :wow:

[sakabatou]

6. Oh, he's gonna be raked over the coals

[SemiCharmedQuark]

20. Apparently he just got a slap on the wrist.

[sakabatou]

22. Fuck

[sakabatou]

23. nt

[Gedankenaustausch]

7. this is worse than

when I was in 9th grade and my health teacher discussed sexuality by reading passages from Leviticus and such that "speak against homosexuality." And then said that if anyone was feeling some of these "tenancies" they could talk to him and he would arrange a meeting with his pastor and "get you over these sinful feelings." and b.t.w. this wasn't in 1950 this was in 1999. I can't believe a teacher would say something this outrageous.

It makes me wonder how faux news would treat this. 1st we know they wouldn't cover it, but if they did. How would they spin it? Because as of now, the faux news viewer thinks that teachers are indoctrinating kids to 'worship' President Obama, and therefore the 'liberal' 'agenda.' I wonder what they would say about this. I think they wouldn't try to defend it because it's too blatantly wrong, even for faux news! Any predictions on what they would do to spin it?

[alphafemale]

35. I'm guessing your 9th grade teacher ended up in sexual relations with young boys

during those "counseling" sessions.

[Gedankenaustausch]

42. hahah

you would think so, he was a total creeper so perhaps. I just remember this girl in the class, whose mother was a lesbian and had lived with her life partner for as long as I had known the girl, bury her head in her arms and silently cried the whole time. The teacher noticed, but he kept preaching on like a good 'ol warrior of god!

[alphafemale]

43. And by the way. Welcome to DU!

:hi:

[Faygo Kid]

8. Apologizes for "any" offense. Apologize for this particular one, jerk.

And it's still not good enough. Fire him. Who does he think he is, a radio talk show host?

[donco6]

9. He would be so toast here.

We don't put up with that crap.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

19. I'm hoping that now that the incident is national news, maybe they'll fire him and rake the

asst. principal over the coals for allowing this to happen.

[FreeState]

10. Update: he was given a warning and sent back to his job

http://www.advocate.com/News/Daily_News/2009/10/14/Teacher_Warned_on_Gay,_Racist_Slurs/

Teacher Warned on Gay, Racist Slurs
By Julie Bolcer

A suburban Chicago school board Tuesday night warned, but did not fire, a high school teacher after he admitted to slurring gay black men during class.

Dave Burk, a veteran consumer education teacher at Geneva High School, allegedly made the comments in a lecture on October 5 about tax money and the National Endowment for the Arts.

"How would you feel about your tax dollars going to pay some black fag in New York to take pictures of other black fags?" Burk allegedly asked students.

Burk will have a letter of reprimand placed in his permanent file, according to the Daily Herald.

The teacher acknowledged the offense to students.

“Burk read a letter of apology to students in each of his classes Tuesday, saying he ‘used a very poor example of words to make my point,’” according to the Daily Herald. "The message I conveyed was insensitive and hurtful,” said the letter. "This is not what I had intended."

Gay senior Jordan Hunter, who reported Burk to school administrators, has been assigned a different teacher. School district 304 officials called Burk’s behavior “unacceptable” and said he could be fired if another incident occurs.

[lobodons]

13. Did the student need to be labeled?

Did the student really need to be labeled as a gay student in this story? Why not just a concerned student or an insulted student or whatever..??

[Howardx]

14. total bs

they should have never mentioned the kids name.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

17. I feel bad for that kid. The teacher will probably be gunning for him now

Not to mention other homophobic kids, parents and community members as well as random internet trolls.

[donco6]

29. Yeah, because he intended something else, like -

uh . . . like WHAT exactly?

[Igel]

31. Transcribed speech has no quotation marks.

How about if he had said, "How would you feel about your tax dollars going to pay some 'black fag' in New York to take pictures of other 'black fags'?" Burk allegedly asked, according to student Jordan Hunter."

The result of the single quotes (single quotes used because they're inside double quotes") is to make it clear that he's speaking in the voice of the Other. I.e., he's using imputed words--not actual quotes, but the kind of question, phrased in the same polemical way, that somebody who finds the proposition being questioned offensive. Since that hypothetical person finds it offensive, he feels justified in using offensive language. Indeed, that hypothetical person may also be as racist as they come. No matter. The person's portrayed as angry. Anger is "authentic," right?

Again: Transcribed speech has no quotation marks. In fact, having done a bit of transcription of speeches, interviews, and the like, people tend to fade in and out of actual quotes. Figuring out where to insert question marks can be vexing. Forbidden to use italics, bold, etc., etc. makes it even harder--all the nuance of spoken speech is lost, and if it's not encoded either in the syntax or evident from the narrative, sometimes things seem to say the opposite of what they probably meant. In this case, there is no strange syntax and there's not much context.

That said, it's easy to assume that the teacher was speaking in his own voice. It's completely possible. But there's nothing in the article leading to that conclusion. In fact, what's said--unless we assume that he's lying--leads us to the opposite conclusion.

I'd also note that people use tend to use "freeper speech" from time to time, essentially saying what they think a freeper would say but not necessarily quoting the actual speech act of a freeper. It's the exact same thing, but it tramples on the sensibilities of nobody here. From time to time somebody insensitive to what the person intended is tripped up. Usually it's resolved peaceably, because on DU there's still a modicum of good will shown to one's peers. Not nearly enough, of course, but that's life in a post-community America.

[snooper2]

38. What the hell does a "consumer education teacher" teach?

I know off topic, but :wtf:

How to shop for car tires :rofl:

[lobodons]

11. Teabagger??

Sounds like a Teabagger wannabe.

[msongs]

12. mabye he was just singing some rap song of some kind? they say far worse nt

[SemiCharmedQuark]

18. Is that supposed to be funny?

[harmonicon]

26. maybe stupid juice is a real product and you just drank a gallon of it (nt)

[jmm]

32. Some rap song of some kind?

Tell me everything you know about rap, I've got a two seconds to waste.


"Far worse" was around long before rap and still exists elsewhere.

[Clintonista2]

33. Among the most idiotic statement I've ever read on DU

And that's saying alot.

[TheWraith]

16. I predict this guy gets fired five minutes after the story goes national.

Hopefully the principal will go with him.

[bc3000]

21. Why is this guy not fired yet?

[xchrom]

24. fire him AND the principal.

the principal was giving his/her ok by sending this nit-wit back to his job.

this isn't the only offensive thing this guy is saying.

[izquierdista]

27. "for any offense"

Who knew that people might be offended by "black fag"?? :shrug:

[dballance]

28. He apologizes? Fuck him

I don't want an apology. I want him gone. Any racist, homophobic bastard like him should not be teaching our children. According to the newspaper story he repeated the comment in more than one class. He needs to go.

[Divine Discontent]

30. good for Justin - he's been interviewed several times on this, he's standing up for what's right

and here's the article with his comments, his pic, and the pic of the teacher - http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/genevasun/news/1821189,Geneva-teacher-gay-student_au101309.article

[harry_pothead]

34. Revoke his credential. We don't need morans like that educating our kids.

[murielm99]

36. When my daughter was in high school,

a biology teacher stated that he hoped they did not find a cure for AIDS. He said that a cure would only encourage more deviant sexual practices.

I found that very homophobic. We did not do anything about it. We should have. The teacher worked in this district for about ten years. Now he teaches somewhere else.

My daughter graduated in 2002, so it was not that long ago.

At the time, my oldest daughter was out of the closet to us, but not to the community. She was okay with us ignoring the comment. She told us that she did not care who knew once her little sister graduated. Our oldest was trying to protect her younger sister. High school kids can be the worst when it comes anti-gay crap.

I'm still not happy with myself for letting this go. We could have objected and kept our oldest out of the fray.

[Tim01]

39. Wow. That's really really far in to the unacceptable zone.

If this dipshit really said this, I'll bet he can't keep himself out of trouble for long, he it too stupid.

I have a hard time believing he really said it if he isn't fired yet. Of course, it very well may be one of those legal things where they have to write him up 3 times before he can be fired.

If he worked for me I would be like "You are FIRED and you are stupid. Get your stupid fired ass out of my building like NOW."

[No Elephants]

40. Being anti-gay is certainly disgusting. No comment on his racism, though?