BELLINGHAM, WA, June 5, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) — A parent's letter to KOMO News in Washington has led to a teacher's apology after a drama awards ceremony at Bellingham High School devolved into vulgarities and what the unidentified mother called “trash.”
According to the mother, who asked to be anonymous to protect her 17-year old daughter, retiring teacher Teri Grimes gave sex toys to the male teen who won the title of “horniest stud” and the same toys to the girl who won “horniest girl.”
But it was the anti-Catholic skit that was the last straw for the mother, who had brought her daughter, a senior, to receive an award.
“I sat there with my mouth open in shock and the final straw was when a joke was told on stage about a teacher, a lawyer and a priest on a plane. The plane was going down and the teacher says we have to save the children. The attorney says “F*** the children!” and the priest says “OOOOH..Do we have time for that???” the mother wrote, according to KOMO News.
On Tuesday, Grimes apologized in a statement. “I deeply apologize for some very inappropriate comments and actions made during our drama students' end-of-the-year awards ceremony,” she wrote. “This is not representative of our students who take such great pride in their school and respect one another. Much of the evening was a great celebration of their work. However, as a teacher and the club's leader, I take full responsibility and am extremely sorry.”
KOMO News says that the school's principal had a meeting with students and Grimes, where “sincere apologies and regret” were expressed. A spokesperson for the school district declined to comment to LifeSiteNews, saying the district was still investigating the incident.
LifeSiteNews asked the spokesperson what kind of corrective action could be taken against Grimes, who is retiring at the end of the current school year, in approximately two weeks.
The mother whose complaint led to the school's investigation says the district handled the matter to her satisfaction. KOMO News reports she thinks the attention will prevent student award ceremonies from having similar incidents in the future.
According to Catholic League president Bill Donahue, however, “an apology is not sufficient.” He told LifeSiteNews that the school's action so far “manifestly does not resolve the issue for me.”
He said that he is “writing to the principal of Bellingham High School and the superintendent of schools (as well as the media) demanding that the same sanctions that apply to bigoted comments made against all other demographic groups are levied against Teri Grimes.”
In a letter to Bellingham High School principal Jeff Vaughn, Donahue said “an apology would never do” if the comments made in the skit were directed towards “other segments of the population.” He said that if “the same sanctions” were not “levied against a teacher who made bigoted remarks against others” weren't “applied,” the school would be “counsel[ing] discrimination.”
Donahue says this distinction makes the issue “more than a moral issue — it is a legal matter.”