Georgia Teachers Suspended For Mocking Student's Sexuality: 'You Two Make A Really Cute Couple'

Two teachers at a Georgia middle school have been suspended after it emerged they bullied one of their students over his sexuality.

Investigations into the conduct of the two teachers at Shiloh Middle School in Snellville, a suburb to the northeast of Atlanta, is ongoing, ABC 13 reported. However, claims that the teacher's comments were inappropriate have already been substantiated by the school.

Jean Mott, parent of the 14-year-old student, has described how the two members of staff at the school repeatedly bullied her son and referred one classmate as his "boyfriend." When the classmate was absent from school the educators allegedly invented some kind of infidelity.

"The teacher said to my son, 'Your boyfriend was cheating on you while you were away. Oh, you two make a really good couple,'" Mott told WSB-TV in Atlanta.

The mother detailed how her teenage son had come home in tears because of bullying by other classmates following the teachers' remarks. The comments about Mott's son's sexuality were reportedly made in front of an entire class.

In a separate incident, one teacher also allegedly accused the teenager of chasing boys around the school after a classmate pushed him over.

She confronted the pair over their behaviour. "Help me understand why, as an adult, you would do this to a child?" Mott said. "Why would you bully my child, or any child?"

The two teachers admitted to joking about the 14-year-old having a boyfriend and then apologized. However, Mott and other parents want the teachers fired over the incident. "I cannot allow these teachers to go out and do this to anybody's else's child," she said. "They initiated the bullying. As a result, my son has been bullied by his peers and it's something he'll never live down."

Mott has said the two days suspension imposed following the Shiloh Middle School investigation was insufficient and an ongoing investigation by the Georgia Professional Standards Commission is unwarranted. While she believes the pair should be fired immediately, the commission has said the outcome of their investigation will decide the teachers' fate.

Some 33 percent of LGBT students in high schools across the United States experience bullying, according to a 2017 study by the Centers for Disease Control. The figure was slightly lower for those who experienced cyberbullying—27.1 percent. The numbers for LGBT students were roughly double those for heterosexual students.