Brave, articulate young man!

[OrphanPip]

But surely it is the teacher's duty to keep things at a reasonable level of mutual comprehension. Sometimes expelling a student is the only way to deal with mounting tension, and a way to defuse the situation.

I'd also point out that since the kid has already mentioned that he didn't like gays, well, then he'd already voiced his opinion once. Where was the loss of freedom of speech?

I'm not sure there was mounting tension, the school board seems to have disagreed. The teacher was wearing a shirt about anti-gay bullying, he was inviting controversy. He was clearly silencing the opinion of the kid's opinion. Punishing disagreement is not acceptable behavior.

Opinions, even bad ones, should not be punished merely for being shared. The degree to which the student was being provocative and acting out is debatable, but he clearly felt he was silenced for having an opinion. If a teacher had expressed an anti-gay opinion and a student were punished for disagreeing with it, would we be having the same debate?