EDUCATION
Union Rips Anti-LGBTQ Videos Aimed at Teachers
Students allegedly posted videos saying gays should not be teaching
BY TAT BELLAMY-WALKER
A local union for educators
is slamming administrators
for allegedly
dragging their feet
to address a series of anti-LGBTQ
TikTok videos used to harass three
school teachers in the Ravena-Coeymans
Selkirk School District,
which is an upstate school district
south of Albany.
The hateful videos, which were
allegedly posted by students last
fall and in the spring, said gay
people should not be teaching,
compared being LGBTQ with pedophilia,
and “derogatory names”
and “crude comments,” according
to New York State United Teachers
(NYSUT). The students who allegedly
created the videos tagged the
teachers’ family members in the
posts to “bring their attention to
the cruel videos,” NYSUT said. The
Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk Teachers
Association (RCSTA), which is
part of NYSUT, is calling for the
district to hold the students accountable
for their alleged behavior.
Only one of the three teachers
targeted in the incident is known
to be an out gay person; the sexual
orientation of the other victims is
not publicly available.
Abby Retzlaff, an RCSTA member
who said she was targeted by
the videos, said the harassment
began while she was teaching a
virtual class in October. Retzlaff
said a student secretly snapped a
picture of her and then depicted
Students allegedly harassed teachers with anti-LGBTQ TikTok videos at Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk School District in upstate New York.
her in drag.
“I was shocked. I was hurt. I was
embarrassed,” Retzlaff said in a
written statement, noting that the
public viewed the videos posted in
the spring 1,500 times.
“Why is (the student) lashing out
at me?” she asked. “This is a serious
situation.”
In yet another alleged incident,
Retzlaff said the GSA informed her
that a student posted on Instagram
saying that the school does not “deserve
a month of recognition.”
The three students who allegedly
made the videos are in Retzlaff’s
eighth grade classes, according to
NYSUT.
School superintendent Brian
Bailey explained in an email to
Gay City News on June 15 that the
school responded by embarking on
a mission to provide wide-ranging
training for students, staff, the
community, and school leader. That
conclusion, he said, was reached
after working with NYSUT, the
Anti-Defamation League, GLSEN,
Capital Area School Development
Association, and Lyndon Cudlitz,
a professional speaker who works
on LGBTQ causes.
“We have not and will not abide
by hate speech at RCS,” Bailey
said. “We have repeatedly broadcast
this to the entire community
as these events have unfolded.
What I have learned over the past
year of remote and in-person instruction
is that the pandemic
has created a disconnectedness
between many of us. And in an already
fragile ecosystem of a social
media-frenzied youth, combined
with a disconcerting disfi gurement
of our American culture over the
past four years, it is unnervingly
easy to see a public environment
where hate speech, intimidation,
and discrimination have proliferated.
The LGBTQ+ members of
our school community are a vulnerable
population. We are educators
and our work will be to help
all students fi nd confi dence in who
they are and to have the sensibility
to prevent harm instead of causing
REUTERS/MIKE BLAKE/FILE PHOTO
it. We can and will do this.”
In response to the incidents, Retzlaff
and other colleagues launched
an anti-bullying committee to discuss
the consequences of this behavior,
including possible charges
of aggravated harassment and the
impact of these posts on an individual’s
career and educational opportunities.
Matt Miller, who leads the RCSTA
and teaches AP and Regents
biology, is proposing sensitivity
training for administrators this
summer to help them respond to
future issues. Earlier this month,
the RCSTA wore T-shirts with
Pride colors to show solidarity with
LGBTQ students and the teachers
affected by anti-LGBTQ bullying.
“If they’re doing it to teachers,
what about students?” Miller
asked. “The shirts are to support
staff and show kids that they have
allies here. It’s a safe place. The
message we send matters.”
This incident comes months after
Albany County Legislator George
Langdon of Coeymans came under
fi re for several homophobic comments.
In a YouTube video, Langdon,
who resigned in April, said,
“When you have homosexual relationships,
it’s not perpetual. Give
them an island, they’ll be gone after
40 years,” according to the public
radio station WAMC.
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