By Courtney Tanner
Education Reporter
The Salt Lake Tribune
A substitute teacher who told a class of fifth graders in Utah County last month that “homosexuality is a sin” has been fired.
The staffing company that employed the woman announced in a statement Monday morning that after an investigation into her comments — which have received widespread attention — it “made the decision to end the employee’s relationship with Kelly Services.”
The woman was working at the time at Deerfield Elementary School in Alpine School District, which contracts with Kelly Services to hire substitutes. It’s unclear how long she had been teaching there or elsewhere in the state. Neither the district nor the company has identified her.
On Nov. 21, a week before Thanksgiving, the woman was filling in at the school and asked students: “What are you thankful for this year?”
An 11-year-old boy in the class responded, “I’m thankful that I’m finally going to be adopted by my two dads.”
Students later said that the substitute snapped, “Why on earth would you be happy about that?” And for the next 10 minutes she lectured the 30 kids about her own views, how “homosexuality is wrong” and “two men living together is a sin.” She looked at the boy, too, and told him: “That’s nothing to be thankful for.”
She was escorted out of the school after three girls walked out of the room and told the principal.
One of the boy’s dads, Louis van Amstel, posted about the incident on social media after his son told him what happened. He told The Salt Lake Tribune last week that he appreciates the girls stepping up and defending his son, whom he asked to identify only as D.M. because his adoption process is not final until Dec. 19. But he questioned why the woman was in a classroom to begin with.
Previously a dancer on “Dancing with the Stars,” van Amstel said the encounter was discouraging and called out the woman for bullying his son. “It’s absolutely ridiculous and horrible what she did,” he said. “We were livid. It’s 2019 and this is a public school.”
He and his husband, Josh van Amstel, said their son has had two failed adoptions before and was worried that he might not be adopted this month because of the substitute’s comments.
“We are concerned about any reports of inappropriate conduct and take these matters very seriously,” Kelly Services reiterated in its statement Monday.