Instead, the tone among the 30 parents, teachers and even a couple fifth grade students from Stambaugh's class who sounded off at the listening session was nearly entirely positive about the decision and wanted to push the district further to ensure safety and respect in schools.
Fifth grader Scullie Langley-Williams (who gave her age as 10 1/2) was in Stambaugh's class and came to the meeting with a classmate to express her support for the student teacher who disappeared from her classroom on September 15th. "If Mr. Stambaugh had said he was dating a girl or married to a girl, it definitely would have gone really different and no one would have told on him," Langley-Williams said quietly into a microphone to the crowd gathered in a chilly cafetorium. Scullie and her friend Sara (also 10 1/2) said the class had no discussed Mr. Stambaugh's removal, beyond the teacher saying that he had to go. The pair were surprised to find out that the story was in newspapers.
"I gotta respectfully say, ya blew it," said openly gay teacher Brenda Koenig, who says she opted to teach in a private Montessori school in part because she knew her rights would be better protected there than in a public school.