Mom: Son kicked out of class over views on gays

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Updated: December 17, 2011 4:09PM

HOWELL, Mich. — A woman has filed a federal lawsuit against her school district and a high school teacher for kicking her son out of class because her son’s religious beliefs prevent him from accepting homosexuality.

The Thomas More Law Center filed the lawsuit last week on behalf of Sandra Glowacki, a Catholic, who accused Howell Public School District and teacher Johnson McDowell of violating her son’s constitutional rights.

There was no immediate comment from the district or McDowell.

The suit says the teacher kicked out Daniel Glowacki, 16, then a junior, from an economics class on Oct. 20, 2010, while the district was observing anti-bullying day and Spirit Day. The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation encourages Americans to wear purple on Spirit Day to support LGBT youth who may feel harassed because of their sexual preference.

The lawsuit said the district allowed teachers to sell purple “Tyler’s Army” T-shirts in support of Tyler Clementi, a Rutgers University freshman who killed himself last year after a roommate streamed an Internet video of Clementi kissing a male student. The teacher, McDowell, wore one of the T-shirts throughout the day and devoted his classes to promoting homosexuality, the suit said.

During his sixth-hour class, the suit said, McDowell told a female student to remove a Confederate flag belt buckle because he considered it offensive.

When Daniel Glowacki asked McDowell why it was permissible to display the rainbow flag, which represents gay pride, McDowell asked him if he supported gays, the suit said. When Glowacki said his Catholic religion prohibited him from doing so, McDowell told Glowacki and another student who shared Glowacki’s views to leave class, the suit said.

The district suspended McDowell for one day without pay for violating district policy but eventually rescinded the penalty to settle a grievance he filed.

Gannett News Service