Michigan Mother Sues School After Son Removed From Classroom For Anti-Gay Comments; Cites Religious Freedom

Predictably, but sad nonetheless, a Howell, Michigan mother has sued her school district and a teacher for throwing her son out of class last year because her son's religious beliefs prevented him from accepting homosexuality. According to The Detroit Free Press, the Thomas More Law Center filed the suit Wednesday on behalf of Sandra Glowacki, a Catholic. It accuses the Howell Public School District and teacher Johnson (Jay) McDowell of violating her son's constitutional rights. The law center, which defends religious freedoms of Christians, said the district allowed Daniel Glowacki, 16, to be bullied for his religious beliefs on a day students and teachers were supporting the rights of gays and lesbians to be protected from bullying. "We don't tolerate any kind of bullying, by staff or students," school Superintendent Ron Wilson said Thursday. The suit says McDowell kicked Glowacki out of an economics class October 20, 2010, while the district was observing anti-bullying day and Spirit Day -- when the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation encouraged students nationwide to wear purple to support gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered students. McDowell wore a purple T-shirt in support of a Rutgers University freshman who killed himself after a roommate streamed an Internet video of him kissing a male student, the suit says. The suit says McDowell told a student to remove a Confederate flag belt buckle that he found offensive. That prompted Daniel Glowacki to ask McDowell why it was permissible to display the rainbow flag, which represents gay pride. When Glowacki said his religion prevented supporting gay people, McDowell told Glowacki and another student to leave class, the suit says. The district suspended McDowell, who is president of the Howell Education Association, for one day without pay for violating school policy, but eventually rescinded the penalty to settle a grievance he filed.