An 18-year old Florida student who was suspended after making gay pornography to help support his family will head back to class Wednesday.
Robert Marucci, a senior at Cocoa High School in central Florida, said he made the X-rated videos to help his mom pay the bills, CNN reports. His mother, Melyssa Lieb, said her son was bullied over the gay porn, and ultimately suspended last week because the principal didn’t approve of his extracurricular activities. Lieb told CNN affiliate WPLG that her son “was expelled due to his explicit lifestyle career.”
“I think that it is [the principal’s] morals and her personal beliefs and I don’t think that this is anybody’s business except for my son’s,” Lieb told another CNN affiliate. “The children at the school found [the porn], and she didn’t do anything to stop it.”
Brevard County Schools spokeswoman Michelle Irwin said Marucci was suspended over “possible threats” he had made, not over the gay porn, although she did say that campus officials had heard about the explicit videos. Irwin told CNN that the school principal had never spoken with the teen’s mother, but did offer the student resources in support of his “alternative lifestyle.”
Irwin also said Marucci had never made any formal bullying complaints. She also said the school would never suspend a student for legal extracurricular activities.
[CNN]