Broncos fan back in school, with escort
Larissa Theodore, Times Staff
01/31/2006


BEAVER FALLS - Plenty of high school students have had that day when they just don't want to face their classmates, fearing a bad haircut or "uncool" brand of jeans might turn them into a big target for teasing.

But 17-year-old Joshua Vannoy of Big Beaver had a more unusual reason for his jitters at the start of this school week.

On Monday, Vannoy returned to classes at Beaver Falls High School for the first time since Jan. 20 - all classes, that is, except for his honors ethnic relations class. That's where Vannoy said his teacher, John Kelly, forced him to lie on the floor during his midterm exam.

Vannoy said Kelly humiliated him further by directing the class to throw wads of notebook paper at him, all because he wore a No. 7 John Elway Denver Broncos jersey. It all occurred before the Steelers won the AFC Championship game against the Broncos.

Fresh off the school bus Monday afternoon, Vannoy appeared worn out, but said his first day back actually wasn't so terrible. He got a little teasing and wise-cracking from students, but nothing dreadful occurred, he said.

"I didn't get hit, and that's the best thing," said Vannoy, who wore a University of Pittsburgh shirt and matching ballcap. "Overall, there wasn't any violence."

The district had an escort accompany him throughout the day, and Vannoy decided that dropping Kelly's class and taking a study hall instead was the best move.

"The student has returned to school today, and we're hoping he can get back to his normal high school experience," said Superintendent Donna Nugent, who said last week the Big Beaver Falls Area School District was following up on the situation and would take any necessary action.

Nugent, who met Friday with the Vannoy family, said an investigation based on the student's allegations has concluded and that documentation would be reviewed with the school board shortly.

A statement will be released "as soon as I can comment further," Nugent said.

what the fuck do you expect when the steelers are playing in the AFC Championship game and you do something stupid like that?

What the hell ... I'll debate with ya' Peeps.



I'd expect a lot. I probably wouldn't expect my teacher to lead the class in humiliating me.

you deserve to get picked on for the rest of your god damn life, and then some

For wearing a football jersey to school? That sounds a little fucking harsh to me.

fuck, i ate paste one day in 2nd grade, and the teacher scolded me and made me sit in the corner, should i have bitched about it

fuck, i ate paste one day in 2nd grade, and the teacher scolded me and made me sit in the corner, should i have bitched about it

not for that, there have been alot more stories printed about this kid than just this one. im actually surprised noones posted any in here or the sports thread. he said he was made to feel less than human, the kids who did throw paper at him threw at him to miss him, and his parents crying and complaining about this.

fuck, i ate paste one day in 2nd grade, and the teacher scolded me and made me sit in the corner, should i have bitched about it

I don't see how you can even attempt to compare these two incidents.

"Joshua said his feelings were hurt, his nerves shattered and Mr. Kelly's reaction to his John Elway No. 7 jersey was anything but humorous.

"He had a dead serious face," said Joshua. "He never laughed at all."

He said when he went to sit down at his regular desk on Friday, Mr. Kelly ordered him to "take those books off my desk. I own that desk." He placed his textbooks on the floor and then sat down at the desk.

Joshua said his teacher told him to "get out of my desk. You're sitting in my desk."

He said Mr. Kelly began sliding the desks into a circle. Then he told Joshua to sit on the floor in the center of the circle.

While Mr. Kelly passed out the tests, he dropped Joshua's test papers, scattering them on the floor so that he had to crawl around and pick them up, Joshua said.

"As I started to write my name on the papers and number them, I noticed he went to the cupboard and grabbed a handful of notebook paper and handed it to all the kids and said, 'This is part two of your test. You'll get points for this. Take the paper and ball it up with two hands and throw it at the Denver fan,' " Joshua said.

Joshua said there were "papers flying everywhere towards me. At one point, a girl refused to do it and he [Mr. Kelly] took the paper off her desk and threw it into the back of my head."

Joshua said he was so furious his hands were shaking and he could hardly concentrate. He said he was lying flat on the carpet trying to answer essay questions about the Israeli Six-Day War and the Cold War while his face burned with shame.

He said he didn't talk back and when the dismissal bell rang, he handed the half-finished test to Mr. Kelly, who "snatched it right out of my hands.""

If that is an accurate account, what sort of adult does that to someone? High school kids are already pretty fragile little creatures, and this seems like the type of kid who gets picked on anyway, so it is pretty fucked up.

you have to know what youre wearing is going to offend someone, regardless if it was just a denver jersey

"Offend"? If someone is so obsessed with a sports team that they would go as far to be offended by a rival jersey, they've got a lot of fucking problems. And even if they are offended, that doesn't give them the right to humiliate people in a captive setting. Its not like he wore it to Heinz field among 60,000 drunk Steelers fans; he wore the damn jersey to school.

excuse me, i have a salty secretion in my eye

you honestly have no idea what people in my area are like when it comes to the sports teams (minus the pens)

and i think humiliate is just a bit too strong of a word here, wow he had to sit on a floor to take a test (which by the way he is going to make up) and had wads of paper thrown in his direction, and oh no, he had his paper snatched from his hand

excuse me, i have a salty secretion in my eye

Actually, I lived in Pittsburgh for a while and I know exactly how the fans are; it's no worse than Philly. But fanaticism doesn't make what the teacher did okay. He picked the kid out with the sole purpose to embarass him in front of the rest of the class for being different. Come on Peeps, I know you're a Steelers fan but you have to admit that the teacher's actions were wrong.

Question: if the kid were black and wearing a Malcolm X t-shirt in an otherwise all-white classroom (teacher included), would you still justify what the teacher did?

actually, im not a steeler fan like most, i watch them only cause they are always on here. sunday, if they win, monday i come into work, sunday, if they lose, i come into work, so my life doesnt revolve around them.

and like was mentioned before, the class was supposedly teaching about discrimination, so to me, this more than makes everything justifiable, but again, this kid wasnt humiliated with

You didn't answer the second part of my last post.