SPARTANBURG COUNTY, S.C. (WSPA) – An Upstate teacher was fired for handing out “inappropriate and unapproved content” to her high school students on Friday.
According to Spartanburg School District 6, the Language Arts teacher taught 10th grade at Dorman High School.
School officials said they spoke with the teacher to discuss the allegations. She told the administration that it was her personal choice to distribute an unapproved article and facilitate a classroom discussion.
Below is the article the teacher gave to her students, according to the school district.
”The International Bear Brotherhood: What it is and why it’s important.” The article states the Bear Brotherhood is a sub-group within the LGBTQ Community, that has been supporting homosexual and bisexual men for years.
It describes the term “Bear,” as slang for non-heterosexual men who are generally larger with a fair amount of body or facial hair.
7NEWS spoke with a parent of a Dorman student who asked to remain anonymous.
“It would be really disturbing for me, because it’s not in line with my views, or my family’s views. We would be open for discussion and conversation afterwards,” said the parent. “But it’s not something that I feel like should be brought up and it would aggravate me that it happened to my child.”
The school district said following their conversation, the teacher was put on administrative leave while it conducted an investigation. After their investigation was completed, the teacher in question was terminated.
“I don’t wish for anyone to lose their job, and I hope the person who did finds work, but at the same time, we go to school to learn about other things. You don’t want views being pushed onto your kids,” said the parent.
The parent 7NEWS spoke with said they don’t want their children to be put in a situation where they feel like they have to choose a side.
“You want them to go learn academics and let them develop into their life, upon what their own views are,” they said.
The school district said they recently held a meeting where teachers were reminded of how important it is to have all questionable lessons and materials approved. They said the teacher who was fired was a part of this meeting.
