April 9, 2012
Assistant Principal Kicks Gay Teen Out of School Pageant
Jason St. Amand READ TIME: 2 MIN.
A gay California high school student was kicked out of a school pageant after he voiced his hopes that marriage equality would become legalized in the next decade, On Top Magazine reported.
Kearian Gertz was removed from the competition by the Fullerton Union High School's assistant principal, Joe Abell. Gertz had to answer questions from school staff as part of the competition and when Abell asked the student where he saw himself in the next 10 years, Gertz said he wanted to see same-sex marriage legalized.
The assistant principal was not pleased with his answer and made Gertz come off the stage.
"'Why would you say something like that?'" Gertz said Abell asked him. Abell then told him he had been removed from the pageant.
Gertz's friends and fellow classmates protested Abell's decision and wrote letters to the assistant principal asking, "Where do you see yourself in 10 years?"
"I just wanted to be able to sit on the couch by the person I love and happily proclaim that we're married," Gertz told the local news station KTLA-TV. "Hopefully, 10 years from now I'll be able to do that if gay marriage is legal."
The high school's superintendent, George Ciokaris, said that Gertz did not break any school rules.
"The district has concluded that the matter was not handled appropriately by the assistant principal," Giokaris said in a statement. "The district believes that the matter should have been handled privately with the student by the assistant principal."
Earlier this week Abell changed his tune and apologized to Gertz over the school's intercom.
"I made a judgment call during the question and answer portion of the competition that I sincerely regret making. For doing this, I am truly and sincerely sorry," Abell said.
"By taking the actions that he did, by standing up on that stage and trying to cut Kearian off on from what he was saying; he sends a message to every single person in that audience that what he was saying was incorrect and what he was saying was wrong. And I find that intolerable," Blake Danford, a Fullerton Union High School student, told the news station.
Watch a video of the report below:
