ROGERSVILLE, Ala. — The Alabama public school high teacher and football coach who was secretly recorded in a classroom setting making derogatory comments about gays and First Lady Michelle Obama, has been suspended.
Bob Grisham, the head football coach at Lauderdale County High School, who also teaches psychology and driver’s education teacher, was suspended for 10 days without pay.
Bob Grisham
via Times Daily
The incident centers around a classroom discussion where Grisham asked students if they knew who is behind the 600-calorie school lunch.
“Fat butt Michelle Obama,” said Grisham. “Look at her. She looks like she weighs 185 or 190. She’s overweight.”
Later in the tape, Grisham referred to the U.S. as going in the “wrong direction” and tells the students, “I don’t believe in queers. I don’t like queers, I don’t hate them as a person, but what they do is wrong and an abomination against God.”
The Lauderdale County School District Board meeting, in an executive session Monday, voted to suspend Grisham and will require him to attend sensitivity training and meet with the assistant superintendent of schools once a month. The board has also removed him from his 5th period psychology class, and he will be given a different assignment.
“I think he should be suspended more days than they gave him because we all have thoughts and thinking in our mind but don’t say it out loud to kids,” one parent, Christine Perkins, told WAFF-TV after the vote.
Another parent, Lee Barclay, said the punishment “was fair.”
“He’s a good Christian man, he just misspoke that day,” said Barclay.
Board members would not comment on the incident, but did release a statement saying they were disappointed in the actions and statements of Grisham.
Filed under: Alabama
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should have been fired.
Spread the hate. You are part of the problem, not the cure. As someone dealing with children you should know better and be ashamed.
Fire the dumbass! e
Fire him.
People should be judged by their character not their frigging sexual orientation. Way to go “coach”.
“He’s a good Christian man, he just misspoke that day,”
Yea…definitely a good “christian” *sigh*
oh he will get off..it is sad that there are people like him influencing the younger generations.. Sad indeed
It must be tough to live in a state that, on the one hand just passed the most stringent anti-abortion bill in the country, attacks people of color on a regular basis and has no difficulty going off on a rant about gay people, and, on the other hand actually does something about it, every now and then.
Suspended? After planting all those hate seeds in the young minds entrusted to him? Unacceptable. He should be fired & schooled in tolerance before being allowed to coach or teach again.
He may be a good Christian, but he’s a bad person, and a worse teacher. FIRE HIS ASS!!!
“He’s a good Christian man, he just misspoke that day,” My butt! He is a racist and a homophobe. Period. He hides behind his Bible and picks and chooses what he wants to “defend” in it. Irony #1- Levictus says dont shave the hair on the sides of your head. This is why the South still lags behind…
Fire him!
coaches, teachers, principals etc- if ALL children don’t feel safe in these everyday situations with these people- how are they to survive and thrive as individuals daily and know ‘it gets better’- there should be 0 tolerance for any type of bullying in every school across this country! Bigoted teachers, etc should leave their personal issues at home- and be made to take classes on anti-bullying- Nationwide.
The classroom and field are not where the teachers should be sharing their views like these. People are fully entitled to their opinions, right or wrong, but they are not entitled to share those views whenever and wherever they want.
I also want to know why it’s always important to add “He’s a good Christian man…” This is something that reporters feel is important enough to add to their stories. Yes, I know that it was a quote. No, it didn’t have to be included.
GOOD!
I don’t understand why “good christians” cannot comprehend that their actions belie everything they supposedly stand for…
I think it should be more than a suspension, what so he can go back to work and continue to disparage populations and dispense his beliefs when and where he wants???
What a joke. Suspended. Alabama just made a statement that they do not care if hate is taught in their schools.
suspended? he should be fired…
WHAT’S IT TO HIM? HE IS NOT EVEN SEXY, WHATTA AN ASSHOLE!
this is the type of teacher that pushes kids to hang themselves from school yard fences. school needs to, must be, the one place where a emotional disturb student can find someone to help
suspended? Should be fired!
“a good Christian man”…..spreading HATE! geez what a great Christian man he is…blah blah blah
If he had made the same comments about people of a different race or religion he would have been fired.
“Misspoke” my ass! I am a good atheist woman and I would never talk like that about MO or gays.
Especially in front of kids, regardless of his beliefs.
As a teacher , very wrong.
He should have been fired, but I guess it’s better than nothing. At least now his students can call him obese and a cracker and teach him that Gods are mythological beings that do not exist.
He wasn’t promoted??!! Maybe they are making headway in “Bama”.
Being from Alabama and for gay people, this seems a bit absurd. Kid’s can make their own decisions, school is a joke anyways. Taking the psychology “coach” too seriously, is a bit seriously fucking retarded. Ignore him. He’s trash. He will not be on the right side of history. The end.
Theses Bigots are always the ones behind the scene getting their rocks off!
Now go show your hatred to the straight folks who suspended you fool
These people are as bad as him! “We are all thinking it” “good Christian man” that’s a load of crap. He should have been fired. I dot understand how the parents of those children could stand for such non sense.
I am from there and I would be really suprised if he gets fired. When I came out in the 90s I had ppl calling me queer,dyke,fag etc that I didnt even know. I was also fired from a job because of my sexulaity. Called a lawyer and was told that all my boss had to do was say that I was fired for insuboranation and that I would not find a sympathetic jury in Florence Alabama. So good luck guys
Misspoke “that day” My Ass. A “good Christian”. My ASS , That is not Christian AT ALL. He just vented his mind not knowing that he was recorded. There is no room for bigots in a school classroom.
Nope but you can bet that there sure are plenty of them in classrooms in that area. Rogersville,Alabama is only about 15 miles from Pulaski,Tn the birth place of the Klu Klux Klan.
I know atheists who are better Christian then this dumbass!