Colorado: Teacher Dumped for Playing 10 Minutes of Opera
Jennifer Emick points to a story published in PlayBill Arts:
[Tresa Waggoner] chose a video of Gounod’s Faust (which she found on the classroom shelf) to teach the children about bass and tenor voices, the use of props, and “trouser roles” in opera. The latter, she says, led to accusations that the married mother of two was a lesbian promoting homosexuality; the plot of Faust, where the title character sells his soul to the devil to recapture his youth, led to her being labeled a devil worshipper. [emphasis added]
Waggoner, it should be noted is “the liturgist for the Brighton Presbyterian church” and her church is standing behind her — so not all Christians in this town are unreasonable. I wonder, though, if the members of her Presbyterian congregation will recognize this as a reason to look a bit more critically upon their religion and how fellow Christians behave? Will they learn from this incident?
Waggoner is particularly frustrated, she said, that the school didn’t stand up to the minority of parents who demanded her dismissal, pointing out that only 11 out of 200 students had been pulled from her classes. She has received numerous letters and phone calls of support from teachers, students, and parents. Following the incident, however, scheduled performances by Opera Colorado at the school have been cancelled.
Why on earth did the school think it was appropriate for them to force Tresa Waggoner to go on “administrative leave” after this? Based upon the report it’s inconceivable that they could have thought that she did anything remotely wrong. All we seem to have is school too afraid to stand up in defense of a good teacher and against a bunch of unstable Christians.
What we are seeing here is just how extreme some Christian extremists can be. The fact that Waggoner is not only a Christian, but is active in her church, simply doesn’t matter — because she accepts something the extremists find unacceptable, she isn’t considered a “Christian” anymore. She’s now a lesbian devil worshipper in their eyes and it’s unlikely that this will change — that they will admit to having made a mistake in their judgment.
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Comments
I couldn’t believe what i just read. I guess “christians” have no regard for the fundamentals of western civilisation.I find this very frightening that a group of people with double digit iq’s can have so much influence in a school system. The cowardice of the school administration is apalling. These people need to be isolated from civilised society.