Teacher gets horrific online abuse from students for being a lesbian
A teacher at a school in the US has spoken out after her students bullied her because she’s gay.
Amy Estes, a middle school teacher in the Rocklin Unified School District, California, said her students starting discriminating against her when they found out about her sexuality.
“One night I received a really upsetting comment that said ‘don’t be stupid, be a smarty, you can join the Nazi Party – now accepting dykes,'” she told ABC.
“I had never revealed in those videos that I was gay and additionally when I looked at the profile it said that it was someone from Rocklin, California.
“I presented that to my administrators and said, you know, again, ‘I really think we need to look into this, this is feeling more serious.'”
Estes was critical of the school district’s response to her abuse, saying it did not do enough to combat it.
Amy Estes was abused online by her students. (Amy Estes/Facebook)
She added that, after making what she considered an “urgent request” over the abuse, it took a full month for her school district to schedule a meeting with her over the comments.
Estes says she is now on mental health leave.
“As a result of what has happened, I have experienced severe anxiety and depression. It was incredibly challenging to be at my job and to feel like this was happening. I had hoped for more support from my school and district. It’s been disappointing,” the teacher added to PinkNews.
On Facebook, Estes describes herself as a “comedian, queer, feminist, coffee drinker, snort laugher, writer, dreamer, [and] charmer.”
PinkNews has contacted the Rocklin Unified School District for comment.
Amy Estes. (Amy Estes/Facebook)
In October last year, it was reported that an eight-year-old boy was killed by his mum’s boyfriend because he thought the child was gay. He had told his teacher he was being abused.
And in August 2017, a kindergarten lesson on what it means to be transgender sparked backlash from parents in California. A teacher had distributed two books in a kindergarten class specifically designed for young children.
California recently said it will ban state-funded travel to Oklahoma over legislation that discriminates against LGBT people wanting to adopt a child.
California has already banned state-sponsored travel to seven other states: Texas, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Dakota, and Alabama.
The latest ban is in response to a new Oklahoma law that allows adoption agencies to refuse to place children in homes with same-sex parents based on moral or religious grounds, reports San Francisco Chronicle.
The Oklahoma ban will come into effect on June 22.
