A Valley Lutheran teacher has been forced to quit because he is gay, according to the Iowa Capital Dispatch. Matthew Gerhold was hired last summer as the school’s music teacher. He informed school officials that he was gay at the time of his hiring. The school went through with the hiring on the condition that Gerhold refrain from sharing information about his sexual orientation with the students and refrain from dating while employed at the school. In January, Gerhold’s phone was hacked with the perpetrator threatening to share his sexuality with his friends, family, and employer. After Gerhold reported the alleged blackmail attempt, information about him, including pictures, were posted on the school’s Facebook page. Gerhold was then placed on administrative leave before resigning prior to a school board meeting in which he would have been fired. He later applied for unemployment benefits, which was granted, despite the school appealing the decision. Gerhold filed a police report in the blackmail case but was allegedly told by police that they did not have the resources or tools to trace the source of the threats.
