(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Young LGBTQ high school instructor uses hateful attacks as a teaching moment. [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-10-07 Jake Pundsack is a talented and outgoing young high school teacher. He is also gay. And that has made him the target of more than a fair share of verbal harassment. Recently though, that harassment crossed a line. Melrose, Minnesota is located about two hours northwest of Minneapolis, amongst the rolling agricultural hills of the west central part of the state. It’s local high school, named The Dutchmen, after the areas largely Dutch settlers, has always been known as a conservative area, whether it was represented Ds or Rs. Jake graduated from Melrose, went off to college to become a teacher, student-taught in his hometown, and right after graduation landed a teaching position in the high school. Having been open about who is is, Jake has been the victim of hateful messages before, both from students and adults in the community. Excerpts from his publicly-shared FB post tell the tale of what happened to him that evening: Last week, I opened my door to a jungle of toilet paper three mornings in a row; although, I didn't mind because I thought it was innocent fun. However, the third morning was much different. My family was woken up by banging on our walls around 12:30 a.m. We went to bed seeing a road sign in the middle of our driveway and a mess of toilet paper in our yard. Even after seeing the results of this illegal behavior, I went back to bed without worrying because I didn't think it was out of hate. However, I realized I was wrong when I walked to my car to leave for work. First, I saw a childhood swing taken down and a lawn statue tipped over. Then, I noticed writing on my car. I won’t share the details of what was written and drawn, but in essence, I was equated to a pedophile and stereotyped because of my sexuality, something I do not talk about with students and cannot control. Additionally, my windshield wipers were disassembled, presumably to make the obscene messages more difficult to remove. This certainly crossed the line of being in good humor. This is downright sexual harassment, vandalism, and a hate crime. Word of the attacks against Jake and his entire family spread rapidly across the Melrose community, and through his extensive array of friends in the teaching and speech (forensics) coaching peers. The state’s largest newspaper, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, also took notice. (paywall alert) In that article, Jake displayed a level of empathy and grace that many others could learn from. Pundsack recognizes a learning curve as the community adapts to more diversity: "Having a little curveball of something new, it's scary at first, and lots of hatred and fear comes from ignorance." But what he loves about Melrose is how tight-knit it is, and he's felt the full weight of that support after the incident last week and since he posted about it on Facebook this week. He's received letters of support from colleagues. Plenty of colleagues and neighbors have stopped by his home, asking how they can help advocate in the community. Several of the students involved apologized directly to Pundsack that same day, for which he said he was grateful. "I'm more concerned that the kids involved learn from this than I am just about punishing them. If they just get punished and don't realize the damages, what's the point?" Pundsack said. "I want them to be able to grow as people, and I want our community to grow as well." Hearing Jake recount the incident and how he has handled it is amazing. Here’s to hoping that his message of tolerance reaches those who need to hear it. Wishing you all the best Jake. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/10/7/2198002/-Young-LGBTQ-high-school-instructor-uses-hateful-attacks-as-a-teaching-moment?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=trending&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/