Chicago teacher accused of racist and homophobic language
Students at a Chicago school are calling for one of their teachers to be fired after he allegedly used racist and homophobic language in an assembly.
Dave Burk, who teaches consumer education at Geneva High School, reportedly made the comments earlier this month during a talk about consumer tax.
Student Jordan Hunter told the Chicago Sun-Times that Burk said: “How would you feel about your tax dollars going to pay some black fag in New York to take pictures of other black fags?”
Hunter, who is gay, said: “If he wants to talk about a poor place to put our tax dollars, I think his salary is a poor place to put our tax dollars.”
He added that several other students told him they had heard the alleged remarks. Hunter is now calling for the teacher to be fired.
Burk’s lawyer D J Tegeler said that he was cooperating with school authorities and did not mean to harm anyone, but apologised if his remarks had been offensive.
Tegeler added that there was no intention to fight any punishment handed out by the school.
One school board member told the newspaper he thought the decision would be left to Craig Collins, the assistant superintendent for personnel services.
