Another One: Gabriel Taye

Gabriel Taye was just eight-years-old; he was just using the bathroom at his school, Carson Elementary, near Cincinnati, when he, according to the school, fainted.

Several minutes later, assistant principal Jeff McKenzie found Gabe unconscious on the floor and took him to the school nurse, who called Gabe’s mother, Cornelia Reynolds, to say Gabe had fainted and asked her to come pick him up.

At home, when Gabe began to vomit, Reynolds took him to the hospital. He stayed home from school for a day, but returned to Carson the following day; after school that day, he came home and hanged himself using his necktie.

After Gabe’s suicide, Cincinnati homicide detective Eric Karaguleff began to investigate and what he saw on a school surveillance video horrified him enough to write to the principal and assistant principal at Carson Elementary, and to Child Protective Services, saying he was alarmed at what took place:

“I saw some concerning events, and I don’t even have a child at that school.”

In the video, Karaguleff saw a young boy with “with dyed hair sorta O’Dell Beckham Jr. style,” enter the restroom; instantly several other kids ran out, but the boy with the dyed hair stopped one kid and punched him so hard in the stomach that the boy fell down on all fours.

“I witnessed behavior that in my belief is bullying and could even rise to the level of criminal assault.”

A few minutes later, Gabe entered the restroom and appeared to try and shake the hand of the boy with the dyed hair, perhaps in an attempt to get him to stop bullying the child on the floor.

But the bully slammed Gabe so hard against the wall that he fell unconscious to the floor, which is when, according to Karaguleff, the bully seemed to “celebrate and rejoice in his behavior” as Gabe lay motionless.

Several other young boys came into the restroom and took turns kicking Gabe, still unconscious, while other boys just step over his body like he was garbage. Others stop and stare at Gabe, poking him; this goes on for about five minutes until an adult enters the bathroom. Then at least three other adults come in and look at Gabe; some kneel down to get closer to him.

Eventually, Gabe is able to stand up and leave with one adult, assistant principal Jeff McKenzie.

According to the boy’s family lawyer, Jennifer Branch, the school told Cornelia Reynolds that her son had fainted; there was no mention of the attack in the bathroom. But school officials maintain that the nurse told Reynolds to take Gabe to the hospital, though she says they never mentioned it.

 “If the school had told her what had happened to him in the bathroom, that he was unconscious for such a long period of time, she would have taken him to the hospital immediately, reported that to the medical professionals, and she would have the called police.”—Jennifer Branch

And now, the Cincinnati Public Schools superintendent has announced that, after an investigation by the district, no linkage had been found between Gabriel’s death and bullying.

No link; what about the video? What about him being slammed against a wall? What about him being kicked and poked while he lay unconscious on the ground?

Well, the district maintains that the jerky quality of the video makes it hard to tell exactly what happened in that bathroom, but 8-year-olds don’t kill themselves for no reason.

And now, because of Detective Karaguleff’s investigation, Hamilton County Coroner Lakshmi Sammarco is reopening the investigation. When she first learned of Taye's death she was shocked that an 8-year-old would commit suicide and, at first, asked for his death to be investigated as a homicide. But the autopsy report concluded that Taye died from asphyxiation and the manner of death was, in fact, suicide.

"It was very hard for me to believe that an 8-year-old would even know what it means to commit suicide and so I asked Cincinnati police to treat this as a homicide until proven otherwise and investigate it fully."— Lakshmi Sammarco

I’m not exactly sure what’s going on here; a police detective sees a video with a boy, with dyed hair, beating up at least two other boys, one of whom falls unconscious to the floor, and yet the school district says the video evidence is inconclusive?

And why does an eight-year-old boy kill himself for apparently no reason? I mean, if Gabe wasn’t beaten in that bathroom, and if he wasn’t bullied at school upon his return, why take his own life?

The school, and the district need to be held accountable; if only for the fact that Gabe Taye—if there was no beating by the boy with the dyed hair, and how easy must it be to find that kid—collapsed, either from a beating or from a sudden fainting spell, in a bathroom, and several other boys kicked him while he was down.

Part of the school’s job is to protect these kids while they are in their care, and this school didn’t do that; they apparently looked the other way. And with this video evidence it just seems like the school is as responsible as those boys in Gabe Taye’s death.

He was just an eight-year-old kid using a bathroom.

CNN

The Root

Crime Online

Teacher Refuses To Sign New Anti-LGBT Catholic Teaching Contract

Richard Hague has been a teacher at Purcell Marian, a Catholic school in the Cincinnati area, for forty-five years, but the new contract the Archdiocese of Cincinnati wants him to sign, one that prohibits public support for causes the Catholic Church opposes, most notably same-sex marriage, has him at odds with the church because he won’t sign it, and he won’t leave his position at the school voluntarily either.

Hague, who is not gay, wrote a letter expressing his position to the superintendent of Catholic schools, saying, in part:

"I simply cannot believe that Jesus would require me to condemn my friends, nor that Jesus would require me to report any of my colleagues who supported, even loved, gay persons, nor do I believe for a moment that Jesus would punish me for my earlier ministry.”

Well, we all know it isn’t Jesus who created the new homophobic contract, it’s the Catholic Church; I think Jesus would have an entirely different opinion. Even Pope Francis might have a different opinion, a question posed by "Voice of the Faithful," a lay Catholic group, in a billboard campaign about the new contracts.

And now, former students of Hague’s are planning a rally outside archdiocesan offices to protest the contract and show solidarity with their teacher. One such student, Jason Brown, says it’s a losing game to allow teachers like Hague to quit, or be terminated, over this new contract:

"He dedicated 45 years of his life to teaching kids in an urban school. He taught poetry and creative writing. He taught you how to think outside the box and really be your own person. If we lose that, we lose everything.”

Mindy Burger, a teacher at Nativity School, also in Cincinnati, is one teacher who has refused to sign the new contract, while Molly Shumate has said she will leave her longtime teaching job rather than sign the new contract because she has a gay son. And Mike Moroski lost his teaching job because he came out in support of marriage equality.

So far, the Archdiocese said nine teachers have rejected the contract, but 80% of teachers have signed it; another 20% have yet to be presented with the new contract.

Let me get this queer: Richard Hague is a straight teacher who loves teaching, and has been doing so at the same school, without incident, for forty-five years now. He simply wants to be able to teach, and mentor, and guide his students, gay or straight, through this important phase of their lives and he’s being asked to be silent about it.

If you ever had any doubts about the need to strengthen the Separation of Church and State mindset in this country, this is a prime example: churches firing teachers because of their politics. Or, even worse, asking them to be silent in order to keep their jobs.

source

Tricia Mackie, Fox "News" Anchor, Non-Apologizes For Homophobic Remark

It's kinda funny, and sad, this social media thing. We all get angry when we find kids saying ignorant things on Facebook and Twitter, and we go ballistic when adults--like yesterday's post, Denise Helms--use their social media outlets to spew ignorance and hate; and death threats.

But I would expect more from a journalist. I can remember when journalists were professional, when they simply told the story, without editorializing, and reported the facts. These days, though, these so-called journalists seem more like petulant school children using Facebook to snark and Twitter to bully.

Case in point: Fox [of course] news anchor from Cincinnati, Tricia Mackie.

Back in October, she posted on Facebook that MSNBC political pundit and commentator, Rachel Maddow, was an “angry young man.”

Isn’t hat hilarious? Rachel's a lesbian, you know, so, of course, she's a man, because Lesbians aren’t real women and Gay men aren't real men., It's funny. Yeah, not so much.

Click to emBIGGERate

And Tricia Mackie, at first, refused to accept that what she said was bigoted, homophobic, and bordered on bullying, not to mention that a professional journalist--even one who works for Fox--should know better than to name-call and belittle anyone in print.

She did walk back the angry young man comment a bit by saying she should have called Maddow “antagonistic,” but then she admitted that she “knew what I was saying.”

And yet she still said it.

But, both GLAAD and Equality Ohio knew that Tricia Mackie was being an idiot, and had a few choice words of their own for the "news"person:

Referring to Maddow as a “man” because she is a gay woman is completely unacceptable for someone in the business of journalism.Cincinnati viewers rely on Mackie and Fox 19 to deliver unbiased and fair reporting about the lives of LGBT people in their community. But this is someone who attempted to insult a gay woman by questioning her gender, then stated very clearly that she did so with complete awareness of her actions.Tricia Mackie undoubtedly tried to insult Maddow because of their political differences, rather than simply because Maddow is gay – but her comments went much further than insulting Maddow’s political leanings, and took issue with Maddow’s gender, revealing an anti-gay (or at least anti-gender-nonconforming?) bias underlying her political beliefs.

And suddenly Tricia Mackie was all apologetic, issuing the following on her channel, Fox 19's Facebook page: 

“I recently posted comments on my personal Facebook page regarding cable news anchor Rachel Maddow which were insensitive and inappropriate. I apologize to Ms. Maddow and any others who may have been offended by my comments, as they do not reflect my firm beliefs in individual and equal rights, and they certainly do not represent the opinions or position of my employer WXIX-TV.”

Nice non-apology, Tricia. You said it, but you don't own it, because owning might get your blond ass canned, even from a Fox channel.

And as for your "personal" Facebook page, even school children know there is no such thing as "personal" anymore, when you start spouting ridiculousness on the internet. And when you open up your personal page to every Tom, Dick and Homophobe, and then denigrate a gay man or women, you lose all credibility.

Your apology should have read:

I was stupid. I was insensitive. I said the wrong thing. I should know better.

But it didn't because you are stupid and insensitive, and you don't know better.

via Queerty

He Got The Job, But Then They Asked If He Was Gay ....

Jonathan Zeng, a music teacher, has accused the Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy of changing their minds about hiring him because he's gay.

Zeng says Cincinnati Hills, a nondenominational Christian school, offered him a teaching position last week, several days of interviews and observing him while he led a third-grade class. But then, just hours after he accepted the job, Zeng says that school officials called back with just one more question.

"Are you gay?" they wanted to know.

Zeng asked why the question was being asked ,and says school officials told him that Cincinnati Hills has a policy against employing teachers who live as homosexuals because they would be around children and the school believes in the sanctity of marriage.

And then there was no job.

Zeng wrote a letter of protest describing the conversation to the school’s board of trustees, saying the actions of the school were "very painful.”

Cincinnati Hills officials declined to answer questions about the incident and wouldn't even confirm whether Zeng had been offered a job and then lost it. School spokesbigot, Liz Bronson, also would not say whether the school has a policy of not employing The Gays, and, instead, read a written statement by school officials:

“CHCA keeps confidential all matters discussed within a candidate’s interview. We’re looking into this matter, although the initial information we have seen contains inaccuracies. We will not be discussing individual hiring decisions or interviews. “

Of course, she failed to name any of the "inaccuracies."

For the time being, Jonathan Zeng teaches part-time at Corryville Catholic, and has taught at schools or as an opera outreach worker for about five years, but he is still seeking full-time work and performance opportunities.

Sad to say, but federal laws probably won’t protect Zeng from job discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, but Scott E. Knox, a Cincinnati lawyer who specializes in employment and discrimination law, says a a local ordinance might.

Cincinnati has a Human Rights ordinance, which went into effect in 2006, makes it a criminal violation for Cincinnati employers to discriminate against someone who is LGBT. 

On the down side, the ordinance has not yet been used in court yet, and exempts religious institutions, though Know says it might still apply to a private school. It would depend how the school obtained its tax-exempt status, either as a school or as a place of worship. The local protections against discrimination apply to a school, even a private one.

Federal anti-discrimination laws protect people from employment discrimination based on age, race or ethnicity, disability and gender, but does not protect based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

The Employment Non-Discrimination Act [ENDA], which has been introduced in nearly every US Congress in the last eighteen years, would protect workers in companies larger than 15 employees from discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity, but it has not been passed.

One more way the government and the GOP controlled Congress are failing to protect all Americans from discrimination.

Hopefully, this will change, one day, soon, and the Jonathan Zengs of the United Sates will never again be asked about their sexual orientation, and never again be fired or denied employment, because of it.

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