This Week in the Mercury

I, Anonymous

Columns

I, Anonymous

Green in the Dark


Up & Coming

Music

Up & Coming

This Week’s Music Previews



  |  

Friday, October 1, 2010

News Lewis and Clark Was "Cut Out of Process" to Boot Gay Student Teacher from Beaverton School District

Posted by Sarah Mirk on Fri, Oct 1, 2010 at 9:24 AM

Seth Stambaugh
  • Leo Qin - Pioneer Log
  • Seth Stambaugh
Last night I broke the news that 23-year-old student teacher Seth Stambaugh, a graduate student in Lewis and Clark's teaching program, was barred from teaching in the Beaverton School District after making an "inappropriate" comment: telling a student who asked about his marital status that it would be illegal for him to get married because he would choose to marry a man.

Now there's some discrepancy over who made the final call to kick Stambaugh out of the district. When I talked with Beaverton School District spokeswoman Maureen Wheeler yesterday, she noted that as a student teacher, Stambaugh was never technically an employee of the school district. "We requested a change of placement for this teacher," said Wheeler. That put the onus on Lewis and Clark to fulfill the request or deny it.

But Lewis and Clark public affairs director Jodi Heintz says Lewis and Clark did not make that decision. Instead, they received a phone call from the Beaverton district that informed them Stambaugh was barred. "We categorically deny that we had the final call on what happened with Seth," says Heintz.

Usually when conflicts arise between student teachers and their schools, says Heintz, Lewis and Clark finds a way to sit down and talk it out with the teacher or school. In this case, there was no discussion. "That is not standard operating procedure for how we operate with schools," says Heintz. "The fact that we were completely cut out of the process was an aberration."

Last night about 30 students and some faculty came out to an open forum on the incident at Lewis and Clark hosted by Unisex, a gender equity group on campus. The associate dean of the graduate school answered questions about the case as much as he could. Currently, Lewis and Clark is working to get Stambaugh a new student teaching position in the Portland school district.

"Our goal is to see Seth become a teacher and that means getting him a new placement," says Heintz. The Lewis and Clark Pioneer Log has a rundown of the open forum and how the issue is developing on campus:

“I first knew I wanted to teach when I was in seventh grade while doing community service as a tutor in a bilingual elementary school classroom in Albuquerque, New Mexico…[I] was drawn to Lewis & Clark’s undergraduate campus because of the one-year program in teaching offered at the graduate school. I also wanted to find a place more suitable than Albuquerque to be a queer teacher, and Portland certainly fit the bill,” said Stambaugh as he began his speech.

Here's a statement from the school spelling out exactly what happened:

The Lewis & Clark Graduate School of Education and Counseling first learned of Stambaugh's removal when student-teacher coordinator Cindi Swingen received an email from Sexton Mountain Elementary School Principal Don Martin on Monday, Sept. 13 stating that he had a concern about Stambaugh and wanted to talk to Cindi. Swingen called that evening (Monday) and spoke with Martin. In that conversation, Don described the incident and said he wanted Seth moved. Cindi followed up with an email asking Don to consider several questions about the decision-making process used to reach his decision.

On Sept. 14 Linda Griffin, Assistant Professor in Teacher Education, called and emailed Principal Martin. Griffin received a voicemail from Beaverton School District Administrator Mark Moser and returned his call, but did not reach him and left a voicemail. Moser called and spoke with Griffin on (9/15) and Moser confirmed that the principal wanted him moved and that Moser spoke on behalf of the teacher, the principal, and the district.

 

Comments (13) RSS

Oldest First Unregistered On Registered On Add a comment
1
The second paragraph has an remarkably weak and noncommittal lead for a partisan paper like the Mercury. How these people are talking are as important as what they're saying, "some discrepancy" gives me no new information. Are you trying to keep sources talking or trying to cover up for a hastily written entry yesterday?
Posted by sexmachinealpha on October 1, 2010 at 9:59 AM · Report
2
"The associate dean of the graduate school answered questions about the case as much as he could. " The Associate Dean of the Grad School is Janet Bixby. The Dean is Scott Fletcher. Do you mean that the Dean answered questions as much as he could, or do you mean the Associate Dean answered questions as much as she could?
Posted by AREllis on October 1, 2010 at 10:18 AM · Report
3
No homo!
Posted by Will Radik on October 1, 2010 at 10:59 AM · Report
4
You all are so ridiculously critical of the writer. The important thing is that student was kicked out of the school district because of a simple comment related to his marital status that revealed his sexual orientation. I didn't know the Beaverton School District was ran by bigots. Isn't it against Oregon law now to discriminate against people on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity? If I were that young man I would file a discrimination lawsuit.
Posted by Jen_White on October 1, 2010 at 11:34 AM · Report
5
This sounds like what it probably is, but there levels of appropriate conversation for teachers in lower grades, and in the end you have to err conservatively. Again, I think there's more sinister interests at work, but it's not anything goes for a teacher. What if they were missing a leg, and when asked how it happened the guy said "I was with my girlfriend, who turned out to be someone who took money for sex, because her pimp burst in with a gun and chased me out the window and into the path of an oncoming car."
All accurate, matter of fact info with no salient graphic sexual details or illegal activity on the part of the teacher (how did he know she was a whore on the side?) Yet I think most parents would rather the teacher not be quite so honest. "I got hit by a car" would suffice. So too might have "I haven't been able to make a marriage to the right person work for me yet--but I'm still trying!" I 100% share the teacher's belief that kids should be able to handle that info put in simple terms as he did--but I have to also accept that other parents don't feel that way. What he said was not pertinent in that context, and could have been avoided.
Posted by torridjoe on October 1, 2010 at 11:38 AM · Report
6
I like torridjoe's take on this.
the pupil's question was within regular bounds of his age, ie. "Are you married?" and teacher seems to have thought his response was sensitive enough for the pupil's age and knowledge of sexual orientation. But the question remains if this teacher might've erred on being less specific.
Posted by corey on October 1, 2010 at 12:16 PM · Report
7
"What if they were missing a leg, and when asked how it happened the guy said "I was with my girlfriend, who turned out to be someone who took money for sex, because her pimp burst in with a gun and chased me out the window and into the path of an oncoming car."

That may be the dumbest analogy I have ever read.

Posted by dark on October 1, 2010 at 12:35 PM · Report
8
@The Darkness - It's certainly in the running.

@Jen - The comments to yesterday's article covered are right with ya! There was a lot of upset here the first time around! It's just that they posted the same article again without much new information, so people were questioning that.
Posted by Reymont on October 1, 2010 at 1:54 PM · Report
9
Oh for fucks sake. It's inappropriate to reveal to a 10 year old that gay men exist? Is it a secret? How about if one of them has gay dads? You think they haven't cracked the code?
Posted by atomic on October 1, 2010 at 1:54 PM · Report
10
I don't know how the word "covered" got into my last response. If you'll excuse me, I'm going to go get checked for brain tumors. Do you smell pennies?
Posted by Reymont on October 1, 2010 at 1:58 PM · Report
11
Is it true that Lewis loved Clark? I need answers.
Posted by miked on October 1, 2010 at 2:48 PM · Report
12
Fuck erring conservatively, Beaverton and Washington County have always lagged behind Portland in all matters progressive. This happened with civil rights in the 1960's and it is happening with homosexual rights now. We need to say once and for all that Washington county is filled with bigots and should be forcibly expelled from the area and placed on a reservation for bigots on the other side of the Cascades where they belong.

Can you imagine a woman being thrown out of a Beaverton school in the 1960's because she said she could not marry a black man, well I can. Same damn thing.
Posted by Rarian Rakista on October 3, 2010 at 4:23 PM · Report
13
not being allowed to marry the kind of person you want to, is not the same as "it hasn't worked out yet". that makes it sound like he's a loser or something. so does the strange and dramatic analogy with the angry pimp.

some decades ago i (white female) would not have been allowed to marry my (mixed race hispanic) husband, at least in this state. if he hadn't had papers, no matter what races we were, i wouldn't be allowed to marry him here to this day. if anybody had known we were both autistic, there would be a lot of people saying we weren't capable of being married at all, in fact someone told me something like "well your husband can't be autistic because those kind of people can't even have relationships".

yes a 4th grader is young. but it's not like the guy went into any inappropriate details.
and yes the teacher was probably feeling a little angry at the question of marriage because most people don't have to consider if they are ALLOWED to get married. so he decided to do an Awareness Thing.
was it a good idea for a 4th grade class? on the other hand, how long should kids really have to wait to know what kind of crap marginalized people go through?!
Posted by n. on October 5, 2010 at 8:02 AM · Report

Add a comment

Our Friends

Our Enemies

/images/adoftheweek.gif

ad of the day

The Handyman Pro - Your Honey-Do Specialist
Don’t let our name fool you. The Handyman Pro, LLC is a repair and remodel service provider with over 25-years experience. We cover all aspects of construction and repairs for residential and commercial clients.go


post an ad

All contents © Index Newspapers, LLC

115 SW Ash St. Suite 600
Portland, OR 97204

Contact Info | Privacy Policy | Production Guidelines | Terms of Use