Ma! Ma! Stop Him! He’s Tryin’ To Do Mah Hair!
Beaumont – the gateway to East Texas and big haired wimmen.
Beaumont big hair
So, it was odd when after more than a decade, the Adult Cosmetology class offered through Beaumont Independent School District’s Taylor Career and Technology Center fired the teacher and is closing.
The reason, you ask?
Principal Thomas Amons would rather close the program than admit a man Amons thought was gay after a brief encounter with the prospective student on the first day of class Sept 10.
The teacher, Ms. Clark, says she saw this coming —
“Earlier this year, I learned he had a problem with gay guys while we were at the hair show in April.” Clark said at the hair show, Amons told her that he never wanted to see “flamboyantly gay guys” in the BISD program like the men enrolled at other programs competing in the event.
So, when 22 year old Kwmane Gray attempted to enter the program, Principal Amons, a deacon at Antioch Missionary Baptist Church where they apparently teach laying on of the gay, decided that he smelled – yikes! – gay and ordered Teacher Clark to remove Kwmane from the program. She refused.
Principal Amons, who has not read a newspaper or watched Will and Grace in twenty years, closed the program down that very day.
Everybody is throwing a walled eyed snot nosed hissy fit, including fellow students, Kwmane’s mother, and every woman in Beaumont who is tired of bad hairdressers.
Three cheers to Teacher Clark, who is herself a pastor of a Groves church and owner of a salon in Beaumont. She said that she is heartbroken at the thought of students not being able to utilize the much-needed program any longer, but that she had “to stand up for what’s right.”
Now here’s the question I have. Are you telling me that Beaumont has had a cosmetology program for a decade and this is the first gay student they’ve ever had?
Well, that explains all that horrible hair in east Texas, now doesn’t it?
Thanks to Texas Ellen for the heads up.
And now Principal Amons has fired Teacher Clark for failure to bigot enough. Nice.
1Oh, Lordy! People in charge of a public school district seem to be completely ignorant of the Constitution and the Equal Protection clause. It’s gonna cost somebody (probably the tax payers) a whole lotta dough by the time this little kerfuffle is over.
2They just keep getting dumber and more bigoted.
3This could be a scene out of the Ed Sanders (of The Fugs fame) song about Johnny Pissoff who justified his gay-bashing escapade by saying “He had smooth hands. He tried to wink at me.”
4Do you think we might have a good and decent lawyer (yes, the three words can be used simultaneously in some cases) step up and sue the holy snot out of Principal Amons and the school district?
5Someone needs to tell that lady about the Lambda Legal Defense Fund, which specializes in this sort of case, even if the kid isn’t gay. http://www.lambdalegal.org/help
The ACLU is a good choice as well.
This is why GLBT kids head to Houston and Austin from the rest of Texas. And it’s pretty easy to get good hair here in Austin;)
6So…. somebody (a lawyer) told “Principal Amons” that he could keep anybody he thought was “gay” out of a vocational education program, in an independent school district, in the State of Texas…. by just shutting it down.
I’m with “Sam in Kyle”.
Not just one….. but two….. really, really stupid people (lawyer and principal)….. And, in this case, you really can’t cure stupid.
7So…. somebody (a lawyer) told “Principal Amons” that he could keep anybody he thought was “gay” out of a vocational education program, in an independent school district, in the State of Texas…. by just shutting it down.
I’m with “Sam in Kyle”.
Not just one….. but two….. really, really stupid people (lawyer and principal)….. And, in this case, you really can’t cure stupid. (Except maybe by making them pay a huge settlement to the injured party.)
8Wow. Closing down a school where people can learn skills to improve the lives of their families.
What part of the Bible is that in again? Was that Matt 25? I’m sure that “deacon”/principle can tell us.
9Of course this is all the fault of us evil homosexuals. I can’t remember exactly which number it is in the “Gay Agenda,” but I’m pretty sure it is #19: Make sure decent Christian folk can’t get a good education.
10@Sam: There’s a good and decent lawyer (or writ twit per JJ) right here in TWMDBS and his name is “Bubba.” He’s also married to JJ.
@Miemaw: I’m betting that the “lawyer” doing the advising never managed to pass the Bar.
11Unfortunately, since this is an Adult education program and not the cosmotology program at the high school, they may get away with this. It is not against the law to discriminate against gay people in Texas, shamefully. Unless this program is part of a federal program of some sort where it is required of the school district to receive funds, they probably have the option to shut it down at will. Now, hopefully, public opinion will shame them into doing the right thing and opening the program back up and allowing Mr. Gray to continue. And I hope I’m wrong and all of the students involved sue and win (if the school district does not do the right thing). Perhaps the students who were in the program prior and are finishing up can make some sort of claim for fraud, since closing the program prevents them from finishing and they have invested time and money in the program with the expectation that it would be there.
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