Watch the Anti-LGBTQ Bullying Video That Got a Teacher Suspended Curtis M. Wong - The Huffington Post
go to original February 10, 2017

Love Is All You Need? (Lexi DiBenedetto)

A North Carolina teacher was suspended from her job after parents were reportedly angered by an anti-LGBTQ bullying film she played for students.

Kimberly Fernetti, who is a teacher at North Lincoln High School in North Carolina’s Lincoln County, presented Kim Rocco Shields and David Tillman’s “Love Is All You Need?” to her class as part of a lesson on bullying, WSOC-TV reported this week. Released in 2012, the short film is set in a sort of alternate universe where homosexuality in the norm, and straight people are ostracized.

The 19-minute film, which has been viewed over 4 million times on YouTube, concludes with a young girl slashing her wrists in a bathtub in a suicide attempt after she is bullied at school for being straight.

School officials told WSOC-TV that Fernetti was suspended following a string of complaints from parents about the content “Love Is All You Need?,” but has since returned to work. While it isn’t entirely clear from the complaints were focused on the film’s pro-LGBTQ message or its depiction of suicid, one student defended Fernetti’s decision to present it. “I personally have dealt with bullying,” he told WSOC-TV, “so I think it’s good to get the point across that ‘Hey, it’s not OK to pick on somebody.’” A family member of a student who was outside the school felt similarly, adding, “I don’t think it was vulgar or anything. I think it’s better to be aware and to know the possibility of what kids’ actions could do.”

Read the rest at The Huffington Post

We invite you to add your charity or supporting organizations' news stories and coming events to PVAngels so we can share them with the world. Do it now!