You'd think that teachers would have figured out by now that posting on Facebook can only lead to trouble—or sexual harassment. But Florida social studies teacher Jerry Buell hasn't figured that out yet. Buell, a former "Teacher of the Year" award winner, is in trouble after he wrote on his Facebook page, "I'm watching the news, eating dinner, when the story about New York okaying same sex unions came on and I almost threw up."
Buell later posted, "If they want to call it a union, go ahead. But don't insult a man and woman's marriage by throwing it in the same cesspool as same-sex whatever! God will not be mocked. When did this sin become acceptable???" In response to complaints from Facebook friends about his anti-gay comments, Buell wrote, "If one doesn't like the most recently posted opinion, based on Biblical principals [sic] and God's law, then go ahead and un-friend me. I'll miss you like I miss my kidney stone from 1994."
Buell, a social studies teacher at Mount Dora High School in Mount Dora, Fla., has been suspended from the school under their new social media policy. "Social media is a minefield. People think they're free to say what they want to, but in some aspects it can come back to haunt you," said Chris Patton, communications officer for Lake County schools, who helped develop the guidelines.
The teacher tried to explain his remarks to the Orlando Sentinel, and argued that he had posted on his own time on his personal computer: "It wasn't out of hatred. It was about the way I interpret things."
