Alabama High School Coach Slurs Gays & First Lady In Class

Bob Grisham

By Brody Levesque | ROGERSVILLE, AL -- An Alabama public school high teacher and football coach was secretly recorded in the classroom launching verbal tirades directed at First Lady Michelle Obama as well as at LGBTQ people.  Bob Grisham, the Lauderdale County High School head football coach- who also teaches driver’s education and psychology- made the slurs in the presence of students in a classroom setting which was recorded by a student who is now facing disciplinary action according to a source in the offices of Lauderdale County School's Superintendent Jennifer Gray speaking on the condition of remaining anonymous.  That person also confirmed that school district officials are investigating the allegations.

The investigation includes a 1-minute, 24-second audiotape of Grisham asking who knows who is behind the 600-calorie school lunch.

“Fat butt Michelle Obama,” he said. “Look at her. She looks like she weighs 185 or 190. She’s overweight.”

Male voices interject comments during the discussion, at one point referring to Michelle Obama as a “fat gorilla.”

Later in the tape, Grisham referred to the U.S. as going in the “wrong direction” and tells the students they can “get pissed off at me or not. You can go tell the principal, call the superintendent and tell her. I don’t believe in queers. I don’t like queers, I don’t hate them as a person, but what they do is wrong and an abomination against God.”

The tape was reportedly recorded by the student this past Monday.

The local TimesDaily newspaper reported that Grisham said that he misspoke.

“I misspoke in a debate-type situation,” he said. “I have no hatred toward anyone or any group. People that know my heart, they know that.”

Superintendent Jennifer Gray told the newspaper that a link the audio recording was sent to her in an email.

“It’s an unfortunate situation, and we hope to clear this up as soon as possible,” Gray said. “Before we do anything, we’ll investigate this thoroughly and gather information from other people,” she said adding “Whatever we do in response to this situation will be dictated by board policy.”

No action has been taken against Grisham by the district’s administration or the school board pending the results of the district's inquiry.

Grisham has been teaching in the Lauderdale County school system since 1991 and has been at Lauderdale County High School the past five years as a teacher and head football coach.

Transcript:

Grisham: Like those lunches - you get 600-calorie lunches - you know who's behind that?

Different voice: Michelle Obama

Grisham: Fat butt Michelle Obama

(Giggling in background)

Grisham: And look … look at her. She looks like she weighs 185 or 190. She's overweight.

Different voice: Big fat gorilla

(laughter)

Grisham: I'm serious. Y'all, our country is, is, is going in the wrong direction.

Different voice: It's going straight to hell.

Grisham: You'd better be aware of it. And people running around like, oh it'll get better, it'll get better. No, it ain't gone get no better until things change. I can give you example after example of that, but I don't want to use any local names to give you examples. Things won't get better until there's a change in some areas and stuff. And you know what his platform was? Change. We're gone change. We're all … aw it's OK …. for … and … y'all can get pissed off at me or not. You can go tell the principal, you can call the superintendent and tell her. I don't believe in queers, I don't like queers. I don't … I don't hate them as a person but what they do is wrong, it's an abomination against God. I don't like being around queers.

Audio: