New York Post
Seattle teacher tells student it’s ‘offensive’ to identify as straight
Story by Melissa Koenig •
A Seattle high school teacher has been accused of berating a student for describing himself as “straight” — saying it’s “offensive” because it suggests LGBTQ people must be “crooked.”
The unidentified pupil’s mom filed a formal complaint about Ian Golash, the chair of the social studies department at Chief Sealth International High School.
She claimed that in the beginning of the school year, Golash provided students with a “Social Identity Wheel” worksheet asking them to reflect on various identities — including race, ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation.
After her son labeled himself as “straight,” Golash allegedly told the boy the term is “offensive,” she claimed in an email to the teacher and Principal Ray Garcia-Morales sent in September but obtained this week by KTTH.
“It is completely inappropriate to dictate what terms a student can and cannot use to identify themselves with,” she wrote.
Golash denied singling out her son, but confirmed saying he prefers not to use the term “straight” because “it implies that to not be straight is to be ‘crooked,’ which could have a negative connotation.”
Ian Golash, the chair of the social studies department at Chief Sealth International High School, is accused of telling a student it is “offensive” to use the term “straight.” Superior Court of Washington for King County
The mother further claims Golash told her tenth-grade son he was “a product of the patriarchy” during a discussion about Florida “banning ethnic studies” — likely in reference to the state blocking an Advanced Placement course on African American studies.
She said her son was absent when the class watched a video about the topic, and told the teacher he did not know why the state legislature forwarded the ban.
“I’m told that rather than converse about the topic and provide him with information and an actual answer, he was told that he was a ‘product of the patriarchy that teaches young boys not to care,’” she wrote in another email to the principal and teacher.
“You missed an opportunity here to teach your student about current events and instead shamed him for being a male.
A mother claimed that in the beginning of the school year, Golash provided students with a “Social Identity Wheel” worksheet asking them to reflect on various identities — including race, ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation. "The Jason Rantz Show" on KTTH
“To assume that he’s being raised in a patriarchal household is a very mistaken one,” she added.
In response, Golash insisted that the comment was not “directed at one student” but connected to discussions the class had in prior days and “the behavior of several boys in the class.”
“I certainly wasn’t making any implications about your household,” he said. “I was referring to a system of power that we all live in.”
The same mother previously accused the ethnic studies world history teacher in an earlier complaint of giving her son a failing grade on a quiz when he labeled two statements “true” — The first that “All men have penises” and the second that “Only women can get pregnant.”
Seattle Public Schools said at the time the quiz was meant to promote inclusion and was in line with lessons taught in the ethnic studies class.
A course description states that students would be “investigating… the global economy, society, and culture.”
Investigating two separate complaints against the teacher — one for the failed quiz and another for an incident in which he allegedly taught an antisemitic curriculum. Chief Sealth International High School
“Mr. Golash has introduced many controversial topics into the classroom and instead of inviting open, constructive and truthful conversations, he provides biased resources that only aid in pushing his own ideological agendas,” the boy’s mother told “The Jason Rantz Show.”
“Mr. Golash instructs his students what to think and not how to think,” the unidentified mother continued. “This in no way provides identity-safe classrooms that allow students to feel visible and valued.”
She claims her son had to “self-censor” due to Golash’s teaching methods, which she described as “intolerant.”
The mother has since pulled her son from Golash’s class, she said.
The Post has reached out to Chief Sealth International High School Principal Garcia-Morales for comment.
Seattle Public Schools said in a statement to The Post that it does not comment on pending litigation.
But the school district is already investigating two separate complaints against the teacher, according to KTTH — one for the failed quiz and another for an incident in which he allegedly taught an antisemitic curriculum.