Seattle teacher allegedly tells students identifying as 'straight' is offensive

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A Seattle teacher has allegedly told his students that being "straight" is considered offensive.

Tenth-grade teacher Ian Golash of Chief Sealth High School teaches Ethnic Studies World History in the Seattle Public Schools system. A complaint filed by a parent to the school alleges that he told the parent's son that being "straight" was offensive when the student completed a "Social Identity Wheel."

The identity wheel worksheet had students explain their various identities about their race, ethnicity, gender, and other characteristics about themselves.

When the parent's 15-year-old son labeled himself "straight" in a box to fill in, Golash allegedly said that "straight" implies a negative connotation to others who are LGBTQ who could then be labeled "crooked."

The mother of the child shared an email thread on 770 KTTH’s Jason Rantz Show.

“When filling out a Social Identity Wheel, he (her son) was told that if he identifies as straight that he needed to pick a term that was less offensive. It is completely inappropriate to dictate what terms a student can and cannot use to identify themselves with,” the mother wrote to the principal, Ray Garcia-Morales on Sept. 24, 2023.

Golash apparently did not admit to targeting the student specifically, but he admitted that he had said some akin to the concept to the entire class. “Because I think language has power and that it shapes the culture that we live in, I did say to the class, in response to a student, that I do not use the term ‘straight’ because it implies that to not be straight is to be ‘crooked’ which could have a negative connotation."

In the email chain the mother also alleged that Golash had said that her son was called a "product of the patriarchy that teaches young boys not to care."

Golash in response to his accusation, wrote, “My response about patriarchy was not directed at one student, it was connected to discussions of systems of power that we had been having in the previous few days and the behavior of several boys in the class."