Who is Daniel Glowacki? He is the high-school junior who is standing up for his rights as a Catholic to hold and express his beliefs.
On October 10, 2010, as he walked into his economics class at Howell High School in Howell, Michigan, he was ordered to remove his belt buckle by the teacher, Johnson "Jay" McDowell. The belt buckle bore the Confederate flag and McDowell considered himself "offended" by it. At the same time, McDowell was wearing a purple tee-shirt decrying alleged "bullying of gays". When Glowacki pointed out the obvious double-standard regarding classroom attire, McDowell questioned him on the spot about his feelings on homosexuality. Glowacki replied to the question by stating that as a Catholic he was offended by the gay lifestyle. Immediately he was ordered to leave the classroom under threat of suspension. McDowell then posed the same question to the rest of his class - and summarily threw out yet another student.
The gay cartel wasted no time jumping on Glowacki, like vultures swooping in for their prey. The school district sided with their "anti-bullying" bully - who just happens to be the school leader for the teachers' union (ahem!). Ellen DeGeneres even jumped into the fray.
Also jumping into the fray, though, is the Thomas More Law Center. They are representing Glowacki and his family in a federal lawsuit filed against the school district. Good for them! At this point in time, Glowacki is probably eighteen years old. I applaud him for showing not only the courage not to back down in the classroom but also for standing up and saying to McDowell and his cronies that he has First Amendment rights and there will be consequences for those who infringe upon them.
In the meantime, please consider contacting the school itself at http://www.howellschools.com/staff_directory.cfm?school=1952 McDowell is number 86. The principal is Aaron Moran, number 103. Go to their entries for specific email addresses. General mailing address and phone/fax numbers are at the top.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
"Alleged" bullying? Riddle me this:
ReplyDelete1) Do you believe there teens and young adults in this world who are gay?
2) If so, do you think they are ever bullied?
3) If so, do you believe this is a good or bad thing?
Thomas, I abhor the bullying of anyone. The fact that the victim is gay in no way mitigates the crime. By the same token, the fact that the victim is gay does not make the bullying any more of a crime than if the bullying occurred for some other excuse.
ReplyDeleteDaniel Glowacki was bullied by this thug of a teacher simply because he gave an honest response to the teacher's question. Too often, this ALLEGED campaign against "bullying" is nothing more than an excuse to squelch dissent against the politically-correct liberal party line. McDowell's behavior provides prima facae evidence of that. I'll be posting more examples within the next few days.
You are not presenting this story truthfully. That school district very recently had had a racial incident where members of the school community had started a Facebook page using the Confederate flag as a symbol of hate and intimidation. Before the page was taken down it had vile and obscene insults against black human beings plastered all over it. When teacher McDowell was giving his Spirit Day class presentation, that presentation was *not* sexual orientation specific. He wore a purple shirt in honor of Tyler Clementi but was teaching about anti-bullying generally. The school because of its recent past was considering that all displays of the Confederate flag constituted a disruption to the learning environment. When teacher McDowell asked a different student who was wearing a Confederate flag belt buckle to take it off, Glowacki challenged McDowell as to why that student couldn't wear the Confederate flag if McDowell could wear the purple shirt honoring Tyler Clementi, which Glowacki said offended him. Glowacki knew exactly why a student in that school could not wear the Confederate flag. To put it in simple terms, he was being a jerk, looking for an excuse to create a learning environment hostile towards gay students. The school's anti-bullying policy specifically says that verbal harassment of *a group* is disallowed. After Glowacki said "I don't accept gays" a first time, McDowell told him he could not say that in the classroom; and he can't -- it's a violation of the anti-bullying policy. Notice that nobody in that classroom said "I don't accept Catholics." Glowacki repeated "I don't accept gays" and that's when he was told to leave. A second student came into the room during the exchange and said "I don't accept gays either. Can I leave?" Another jerk, frankly. If you want for Catholic students in a public school to be able to learn in an environment where they don't have to hear others saying "I don't accept Catholics" than you have to accept that in those same schools it isn't permissible to create an environment hostile against gay students. And btw; there are many gay and lesbian Catholics.
ReplyDelete1) It's spelled "prima facie". Your punishment is to watch the Latin lesson scene from "Life of Brian".
ReplyDelete2) Mr. McDowell's behavior provides prima facie evidence of nothing. He wore a shirt which read "Tyler's Army", in response to the very real, not alleged, bullying and suicide of Tyler Clementi, which happened a few weeks before the incident in Michigan. Moreover, there are reports that young Mr. Glowacki made offensive remarks in his exchange with Mr. McDowell, for which expulsion from the classroom would be a reasonable punishment.
3) If Glowacki thinks that the Confederate Flag, which stands for a shameful history of slavery in this country, is less offensive than a concerted effort to be nicer to gay people, he's wrong.
Thomas and anonymous, we'll see what happens during the hearings. It seems like "powers-that-be" decided that the Confederate flag isn't politically-correct. Anyone who dared to question that dictate (in other words, to exercise the same rights as others enjoy) were punished. Glowacki wasn't the only one thrown out of the class. That one didn't speak on his own; he merely responded honestly to McDowell's question, as did Glowacki.
ReplyDeleteWay to go, Daniel! Thank you for standing up for what you believe. I am so sorry you had to go through all that.
ReplyDeleteAlso, it wasn't Daniel wearing the buckle - another girl was.