Oklahoma Teacher Fired Following In-Class Showing of the Laramie Project

Debra Taylor, a rural Oklahoma high school teacher, lost her job last week after assigning a play about the 1998 death of a gay college student. In its defense, the tiny school district says disciplinary action came after the teacher held a mock “funeral” for a canceled film production of the play.

The incident began in January when Taylor showed Grandfield High School students “The Laramie Project,” which is about the murder of Matthew Shepard. In addition, students were expected to expected to reproduce scenes from the film for a class project. Taylor, 50, knew the project was controversial with strong language, but got her principal’s permission. A few weeks into it, the principal told her to stop production. After students protested, she held a 20-minute ceremony in a nearby park in which students wrote their thoughts and rolled them into helium balloons, then released them.

The next day, Taylor says, Superintendent Ed Turlington canceled the class. After she complained to a school board member, Turlington put her on paid leave and recommended that she be fired. The school board approved her resignation Friday.

Taylor says she was let go for complaining to the board member, but others say it was a result of the play’s subject: homophobia. “They don’t want something like this addressed in our community,” says senior Matt Ebner, one of Taylor’s former students.

John Moyer, an attorney representing the district, says Taylor was dismissed not because she wanted to put on a play or because of the subject matter. “If someone is saying that adverse employment action is being taken against Ms. Taylor because of homosexuality, they’re wrong.”

Taylor says she was trying to help students examine their own beliefs. “I didn’t ask them to change their belief systems,” she says, “but what I asked them was, ‘Can you be tolerant of those that are different from you?’ Many times the students came back and said, ‘I don’t like gays.’ I said: ‘I’m not asking you to like gays. But can you be tolerant?’”

This article originally published via USA Today