More than 100 students at an Iowa school staged a walkout on Tuesday to protest the school district for placing a teacher on leave who reportedly admitted to students he was bisexual.
The Winterset Community School District students sought to help Lucas Kaufmann, a seventh-grade literacy teacher at Winterset Junior High School, who was placed on leave following an in-class presentation about himself that contained an LGBT pride flag, according to Change.org.
“We’re hoping that this will help Mr. Kaufmann,” one 10th grader said during the walkout while donning a bisexual pride flag.
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The students asked about the flag during Kaufmann’s presentation, to which he said he was bisexual, the Change.org description read.
Justin Gross, the district superintendent, told the Washington Examiner the district “became aware of concerns related to the content of a personality survey that was shared with students during class on Tuesday, August 31st.”
“Once the district became aware of those concerns, Mr. Kaufmann was placed on administrative leave in order for the district to investigate those concerns. I am not able to comment further as this is an ongoing personnel matter,” he said.
“It’s showing how homophobic our town is, and it’s not a good reputation for our school,” said a former student of Kaufmann. “It’s proving that kids cannot come out without punishment.”
Another 10th grader, who launched a petition for Kaufmann on Change.org, said the district should have more diverse representation.
“When I was in junior high, it would have been great to have a bisexual teacher or someone that I would feel safe talking about my sexuality with,” she said.
The online petition has collected more than 2,000 signatures.
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Gross reportedly acknowledged that Iowa state law does not permit the dismissal of a teacher on the grounds of sexual orientation or gender, according to the Des Moines Register.
