An openly gay teacher at Challenger Middle School has been facing tough criticism for what at least one parent is calling an inappropriate MySpace.com profile. Gerald Gapusan, also known as “Mr. Gap,” has since stepped down as lead chaperone of the school’s annual East Coast trip, causing a firestorm of controversy, with many parents, teachers and students rallying in his support.

At Challenger Middle School, it is an annual tradition for eighth graders to go on an East Coast trip. The trip combines a learning experience with what may be for some a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see historic cities such as Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and New York City. In the past, the trip has earned high marks from both students and parents.

For the past seven years, Gapusan has been the trip’s head chaperone, and many past students and parents credit him for the success of the program – one of the reasons he was recently elected as Teacher of the Year at Challenger. However, Gapusan now is at the center of a controversy about his MySpace page, which, some say, contains offensive language and “objectionable” content.

Ursula Kroemer, interim director of communications for the district, explained how the issue came to the administration’s attention.

“A student at Challenger accessed the teacher’s MySpace pages and was upset about the language and the images she saw posted there and told her mother,” Kroemer said. “The mother was even more concerned and went to the principal to report the concerns.”

Shortly thereafter, Gapusan announced he was stepping down from chaperoning the trip for personal reasons. Although he later asserted that he was pressured to step down, Area 2 Superintendent Chelsea Smith stated that this was not the case.

“He was never asked to step down at all. It was definitely not my decision or the district’s,” Smith said.

The other chaperones also resigned from the trip in a show of solidarity. Suddenly the school was faced with a scheduled school trip but did not have chaperones. Substitute chaperones were lined up, but parents were concerned that the new chaperones hadn’t been on the trip before.

“How I got involved was that after the initial meeting the principal had with the parents, regarding the chaperone changes, I received concerns from parents regarding the issue and wanting a meeting with me,” Smith said. “That’s when I went out to assess what was going on.”

The district held a meeting with parents Jan. 12 to discuss concerns. Smith tried to assure the parents that the trip would go forward as planned, but that in light of recent events, if they didn’t want to send their children on the trip, they would get full refunds.

Nevertheless, the meeting was heated and filled with parents and past and present students of Gapusan’s who spoke up in support of the teacher. Many were upset by what they viewed as one parent’s ability to create trouble for a respected teacher.

“I am angry, I am outraged and I am disgusted that one individual can get a school district to do what they have done,” parent Kathy Collins told Fox6 news.

One of the parents leading the support for Gapusan is PTA member Bob Turner. He defends Gapusan’s credentials as well as his right to a private life outside of school.

“I’ve had a couple of kids who’ve not only been in his class for two years each, but have been on this trip with him,” Turner said. “He’s just an awesome teacher and he was voted Challenger’s Teacher of the Year a couple weeks ago.”

Turner said that when he first had children in Gapusan’s class, he had no idea that Gapusan was gay, and that it wasn’t an issue when he found out. He said that homophobia is the reason for the actions of the parent who took her concerns to the district.

“What happened,” Turner said, “was that there was an individual that doesn’t like gays, and she’s made comments that no homosexuals should be working in schools.”

Turner claimed that this parent went looking for something to use against Gapusan and felt she found it in the content of his MySpace page. Turner said that she took content from his MySpace page to the school board and raised objections.

Kroemer said that once the matter was brought to their attention by the parent, the district’s hands were tied and they were obligated to investigate.

“Whenever we – as a district – receive these sorts of concerns or complaints, we have a fundamental obligation to look into it. It becomes an issue of protecting children from inappropriate and harmful material,” Kroemer said. “We have no interest in the personal lives of staff, despite what many parents have been quoted as saying in that ‘the district is going after him because he is gay,’” Kroemer said.

Turner said that from what he had seen of the evidence up to that point, Gapusan’s MySpace page is far from racy, and most people who have seen the so-called “objectionable content” didn’t find it very objectionable at all. Unfortunately, objectionable is a term that is hard to quantify, and as Turner himself admits, “If you ask 10 different people, you would probably get 10 different opinions.”

This became evident last week when the district made the content of Gapusan’s MySpace page available to the public, and while some parents and teachers still support him, at least some of the original chaperones have once more agreed to go on the trip.

“The field trip is going on as planned with chaperones who include some who’d originally stepped down, and anyone who has asked for a refund on the field trip is being given one in full,” Kroemer said.