Seattle Teacher Under Fire for Telling Students the Term “Straight” Is Offensive

A Seattle-area teacher is facing parental criticism for allegedly telling 10th grade students that using the term “straight” in order to define one’s sexuality is offensive. The complaints against the teacher, Ian Golash, are being investigated by Seattle Public Schools (SPS). Golash teaches at Chief Sealth International High School.

Golash, a self-described communist, has a history of teaching controversial left-wing ideology as fact. Earlier this year, he reportedly failed a child on a quiz after the student asserted that only women can get pregnant and men have penises.

In addition to his role as a teacher, Golash also serves as the chair of the school’s social studies department.

In Golash’s 10th-grade Ethnic Studies World History class, he gave students an assignment to fill out a “Social Identity Wheel,” which asked them to name and explain their various “identities,” including racial, ethnic, gender, socio-economic status, physical, emotional, disabilities, and, of course, sexual orientation.

Golash took issue with at least one 15-year-old who labeled himself “straight.” The teacher claimed that the word, which has been used since the mid-20th century to describe heterosexuality, was offensive “because it implies that to not be straight is to be ‘crooked’ which could have a negative connotation.”

The student’s mother, who wishes to remain anonymous, objected to Golash telling her son how he needs to “identify.” She shared an email exchange with the school with Seattle radio personality Jason Rantz.

“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 stated in an email from September 24.

Golash denied that he was telling students how to identify, but did admit to his disdain of the term “straight.”

“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,” Golash explained. “But, again stated that I am not interested in telling them how they should identify and that the wheel they are completing is for their own reflection, not for me to assess.”

A better question to ask is why this alleged teacher is asking students to fill out such a form in the first place. Why would a teacher be interested in how a student “identifies” unless he was looking for potential “problem” students who might have an issue with his far-left ideology?

The mother also claimed that Golash bullied her son in class, allegedly calling him a “product of the patriarchy that teaches young boys not to care.”

“You missed an opportunity here to teach your student about current events and instead shamed him for being a male. To assume that he’s being raised in a patriarchal household is a very mistaken one,” the mother wrote in an email.

While admitting to bringing up the so-called patriarchy, Golash denied that his remarks were directed at the mother’s son.

“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,” Golash replied.

The Post Millennial’s Ari Hoffman has unearthed more of Golash’s left-wing ideas. Allegedly, the teacher displays images of terrorists in his classroom, along with pro-Hamas slogans. He has also displayed anti-police and Antifa propaganda.

In a Facebook post in the wake of the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, Golash wrote, “This is what I understand. Correct me if I’m wrong… With evidence, please…On October 7-9…Hamas didn’t behead anyone. Hamas didn’t rape anyone.”

Teachers such as Golash are the prime reason that there’s been a recent resurgence in homeschooling.

The fact that Golash is not just a teacher in the public schools, but one who serves as a chairman of a department, is an indictment of the Seattle Public Schools. By extension, it’s an indictment of public schools across the nation which, generally, lean far to the left. Only by removing children from this left-wing environment can parents be assured that their children are receiving a quality education.