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Last Updated: Friday - 09/24/2010

Week of April 18, 2005

Teacher suspended for letter to the editor

Chris Kempling defied school board directive

By DEBORAH GYAPONG
Canadian Catholic News
Quesnel, B.C.

British Columbia school counsellor Chris Kempling faces a three month suspension for writing a letter to the editor on the subject of homosexuality.

"The suspension is without pay and represents over $25,000 in pay and benefits," Kempling said in an April 5 email interview.

The Quesnel School District handed out the suspension April 4 after Kempling defied a school board directive prohibiting him from writing any further letters to the editor on the subject.

Another hat

"I did so because I was the spokesperson for my political party (the Christian Heritage Party) and was acting on my own time," Kempling said.

Kempling has been embroiled in court cases concerning six previous letters to the editor and a freelance column written between 1997 and 2000, where the educational psychologist provided facts from scholarly journals on promiscuity rates and disease infection among homosexuals.

Though no reports have ever been made about Kempling's conduct as a school counselor or in the classroom, the B.C. College of Teachers in 2002 found him "guilty of conduct unbecoming of a member."

He appealed to the B.C. Supreme Court and lost. On April 21, his case goes before the B.C. Court of Appeals.

The Catholic Civil Rights League is among the religious organizations supporting Kempling's court battle.

Kempling plans to fight the suspension. According to an April 5 LifeSiteNews.com story, he will file a human rights complaint against the school board

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