Kearian Giertz, California Teen, Disqualified From High School Pageant For Pro-Gay Marriage Remark

Classmates, parents and local advocates say they are outraged after a California teen was disqualified from an annual high school competition after making a pro-gay comment.

As the Orange County Register is reporting, the Fullerton Union High School senior was asked where he saw himself during in 10 years during the question-and-answer portion of the Mr. Fullerton pageant earlier this week. The student, who has since been identified as Kearian Giertz by NBC Los Angeles, reportedly replied that he wanted to find a partner and marry him, as he hoped that gay marriage would be legal in California at that time.

"No one should have been offended. Nobody was," Giertz told NBC. "You don't check your First Amendment rights at the gates of the school."

Nonetheless, the school's assistant principal, who is identified by NBC as Joe Abell, ushered Giertz off the stage and removed him from the competition, according to the Contra Costa Times.

Superintendent George Giokaris issued a statement acknowledging that the administrator, who has reportedly since apologized to Giertz personally and issued an apology to the student body via the school's public address system, had not handled the situation properly. "The district has concluded that the matter was not handled appropriately by the assistant principal," Giokaris said in the statement, as quoted by the Register. "The district believes that the matter should have been handled privately with the student by the assistant principal."

Fullerton Joint Union High School District Board of Trustees member Barbara Kilponen echoed those sentiments to the Long Beach Press-Telegram: "There was nothing that the youngster said that was provocative or taunting or anything he should be called on. It was a decent answer that would have satisfied anyone."

Take a look at some unusual school suspensions below:

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• Fifth Grader Initially Banned From Delivering Gay Marriage Speech In Class

  A New York City-based fifth grader's pro-gay marriage speech was eventually allowed to deliver a speech on same-sex marriage, but not until after his principal initially prohibited him from doing so. Kameron Slade, a student at PS 195 in Queens, had planned to deliver the speech as part of a schoolwide competition. After winning a class competition, Kameron reportedly worked on the speech with his mother and teacher.

• Student Suspended For Having Bengals Football Helmet Shaved Into His Hair

  <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47z_zA_fHTc" target="_hplink">See the video here.</a>

• Male Cheerleader Suspended For Kissing Another Male Student

• Student Suspended After Saying She Wished Osama Bin Laden Had Killed Her Math Teacher

  <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Zxg8TFQnUk" target="_hplink">See the video here.</a>

• Student Gets Suspended For Bringing Empty Shotgun Shells To School For Show And Tell

  <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBS2OTlQx2U" target="_hplink">See the video here.</a>

• Students Suspended For Making Hand Signal In School Photo

  <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8qTK-V1sK8" target="_hplink">See the video here.</a>

• Student Suspended For Having Bloodshot Eyes

• Student Suspended For Bringing A Bag Of Oregano To School

• Student Suspended For Saying "Homosexuality Is Wrong"

• Teacher Suspended For Telling Students To "Oink" At Messy Classmate

• Students Suspended For Defecating On Rival High Schools' Property

• Students Suspended For Making Peace Sign

  <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgCDw4ANSlY" target="_hplink">See the video here.</a>