Jerry Buell suspended from Mount Dora High School, Facebook comments about gay marriage, Mount Dora, Florida, First Amendment rights

“If in the opinion of the People, the distribution or modification of the Constitutional powers be in any particular wrong, let it be corrected by an amendment in the way which the Constitution designates. But let there be no change by usurpation, for through this in one instance, may be the instrument of good, it is the customary weapon by which free governments are destroyed.”…George Washington

“We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.”…Abraham Lincoln

The US Constitution has been trampled on again. Jerry Buell, a teacher at Mount Dora High School in Florida, was suspended for exercising his First Amendment Rights on his personal time.

From an email from American Family Association August 22, 2011.

“A Florida teacher has been suspended and removed from the classroom in Mount Dora, Florida, for comments made on his Facebook page against homosexual “marriage.” Liberty Counsel will be representing the teacher in court.

In response to New York’s passage of a same-sex marriage bill, Jerry Buell criticized the new law in a pair of Facebook posts. He wrote, “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 of whatever. God will not be mocked. When did this sin become acceptable?”

Just minutes later, he added, “I will never accept it because God will never accept it. Romans chapter one.”

This reference to Scripture and man-woman marriage has now been labeled as a “code ethics violation” by school officials.

Mr. Buell is currently subject to an Inquisition-type investigation. The school will not let him back into the classroom, says a school official, “until we do all the interviews and do a thorough job of looking at everything – past or previous writings.”

Says Mr. Buell, “It was my own personal comment on my own personal time on my own personal computer in my own personal house, exercising what I believed as a social studies teacher to be my First Amendment rights.”

It’s worth noting that Florida’s constitution prohibits recognition of same-sex marriage, the exact view Mr. Buell supports. In essence, he is now being accused of hate speech for expressing a view enshrined in the state constitution.”

From One News Now August 22, 2011.

“Harry Mihet, the Liberty Counsel attorney representing Buell, notes that the 22-year-plus veteran of teaching is a very popular and successful teacher.
 
“In fact, he was elected as teacher of the year last year precisely because he has an outstanding reputation — not only for being an excellent teacher, but also for loving each and every student who comes across in his classroom regardless of the student’s status or lifestyle or orientation,” the attorney shares.
 
Mihet says it is worth noting that the person who filed the complaint has never been a student in Buell’s classroom. The school is concerned that homosexual students might feel uncomfortable or somehow threatened in his classes. Mihet comes to his client’s defense.
 
“It is an outrageous insinuation that somehow being against homosexual marriage disqualifies you from being a public servant,” he responds. “[That’s] an idea that is so repugnant to the Constitution and to the First Amendment freedom of speech, one of our most cherished freedoms that is supposed to enable us to speak out on matters of public importance.”
 
Mihet believes the school district’s response to Buell’s comments is unconstitutional. Liberty Counsel is demanding that he be immediately reinstated with an apology from the school district.”

Read more:

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Education/Default.aspx?id=1413842

It appears that not only do members of Congress need to read the US Constitution but also “educators.” The Constitution should be read in every school across the nation at the beginning of each school year.