You may have heard the recent story of Florida teacher Jerry Buell, who was removed from his position teaching high school History following comments he placed on his Facebook page expressing disgust with same-sex marriage. When I heard him interviewed – I think it was CNN – I noticed that in defending himself he emphasized that he teaches children quite directly that they are all children of God, and made other religious references as well to describe the message he delivers students from the first day of class.
Well, the good news for Mr. Buell is that he has been reinstated with regard to the Facebook controversy. Those were, after all, comments he made on his own time on his own Facebook page. The bad news is that his classroom religious emphasis was noticed too by school officials, who have now indicated to him that many of his statements are inappropriate church-state violations.
On his school webpage, Buell wrote that he tries to "teach and lead my students as if Lake Co. Schools had hired Jesus Christ himself."
His syllabus also offered this warning to students: "I teach God's truth, I make very few compromises. If you believe you may have a problem with that, get your schedule changed, 'cause I ain't changing!" On a separate document, he also said the classroom was his "mission field."
[Buell's attorney Harry] Mihet said the webpage was since removed and Buell has been instructed to remove some parts of his syllabus.
