NC Mom Finds Popular Teacher's Methods Odd, Morally Suspect

by Jim Brown and Jenni Parker
March 31, 2005

(AgapePress) - A Christian family in Thomasville, North Carolina, is distraught over a public school teacher's reported use of sexually suggestive yoga poses and alleged promotion of cross-dressing and homosexuality in the classroom.

Thomasville resident Debbie Moon says back in January she became concerned about the conduct of one of her daughter's teachers at East Davidson High School. Moon believes history teacher Dan Orr violated her daughter's constitutional rights by asking her, along with her classmates, to join him in chanting Hindu and Buddhist mantras.

The North Carolina mother says Orr, on one particular occasion, "had climbed on top of three desks that he had pushed together and lay down on his stomach, and was sticking his tongue in and out and humming." She says she was "concerned" about this because she "didn't understand what that meant and how it related to a world history class."

And Moon contends the teacher's behavior is not only unprofessional at times, but also immoral and inappropriate for a high school classroom. "When he lay down on the desk that day," she says, "he handed out a handout that told the students if they got into that position, it would enhance the function of their sexual organs." And reportedly, she notes, Orr has been known to show his students sexually suggestive yoga poses and raise questions disruptive to the learning environment in class.

Also, according to the concerned parent, Orr frequently teaches class in bizarre costumes or unconventional attire, including pantyhose, satin shorts, tights, and wigs. But despite these issues, she says she has been denied both a parent-teacher conference and a meeting with the school board to discuss the matter.

Meanwhile, Moon claims her family has been targeted for persecution because of their opposition to Orr's teaching methods. She says members of the community have harassed her daughter Kristen in particular as a way of showing support for the popular instructor.

"Our house has been vandalized on four separate occasions," the Thomasville resident says. "We have numerous people driving by, doing things that we have not reported. We have had to put security cameras around the entire perimeter of our house. Each week it's something."

Orr and Davidson County school officials declined to comment for this news story. However, a number of people in Moon's community and beyond have come forward to voice their support for the teacher, particularly since a local newspaper reported on the disgruntled parent's complaints. Among these supporters are former students of Orr's and other Christian parents whose children have been taught by him.

One fan of Orr's wrote in a letter to the editor of the Thomasville Times, that the high school honors history teacher is "one of the most exceptional teachers my children have ever had" and called him a teacher who is "passionate about history and about teaching" and who "fills his classes with activities to make history exciting and relevant." Other letters to the Times editor were equally glowing, describing Orr as eccentric but also energetic, enthusiastic, caring, creative, and knowledgeable.

One former student of Orr's, a self-described Christian and now a university student, defended the high school teacher's methods and commended him for helping pupils gain perspective about other religions in an increasingly diverse world. The former East Davidson High student encouraged Orr in the open letter, telling him not to change his style, and added that, by lying on a desk and chanting, his old pedagogue was simply "demonstrating his unorthodox, yet highly effective teaching methods the way no other teacher could."