EFLAND, N.C. – A second year North Carolina elementary school teacher is threatening resignation over his district’s reaction to parental outrage over a book he read to third-graders about homosexuality.

Omar Currie of Efland-Cheeks Elementary School recently read “King & King” by Linda De Haan and Stern Nijland to the 8- and 9-year-olds in his third grade class because they were teasing a male classmate who acts “a little feminine,” and “the term gay was used in a derogatory way,” he told The Times-News.

Currie, who is gay, was given the book by the school’s assistant principal, but after parents complained about the material, Efland principal Kiley Brown told him he should have contacted parents beforehand. The district’s controversial topics policy requires teachers to inform parents about controversial issues and allows them to opt their children out of the activity, according to the news site.

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But Currie contends the reading was a safety issue, and the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Education grad is threatening to take his teaching skills elsewhere, The News & Observer reports.

A parent who complained about the reading triggered a public school committee meeting on Wednesday, when officials upheld the book because “the fractured fairy tale form of the book and its diverse subject matter met third-grade curriculum goals,” according to a report from Brown.

But district leaders also imposed two new requirements to prevent future issues: teachers must provide parents with a list of books that will be read in class, and teachers must document bullying incidents in their classroom, The News & Observer reports.

That’s apparently too much to ask from Currie.

“Those things do not show support,” he said.

“Our first and No. 1 job is to keep students safe,” Currie said. “I’m not sure we can keep students safe when we are picking and choosing the families we represent in our school.”

“At this point it’s extremely difficult to continue the work I want to do at Efland,” Currie told The Times News. “I worry that my presence at Efland is not what’s best for the children. … My kids are talking about it (the controversy), and we have to buckle down and focus.”

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As news of the controversial book spread through the small community, two more parents filed complaints with the school district, prompting a second public hearing on the issue tonight.

“People have been gay for years. People have been lesbian for years,” Frederick McAdoo, who attended Efland-Cheeks and sent three children through the school system, told the News & Observer. “But why does a third-grader need to know about that?”

Parents expressed similar sentiments at Wednesday’s meeting, according to ABC 11.

“They keep religion out of school. Let’s be careful what else we want to enter into school,” Frederick McAdoo said.

“It’s just too young,” he added. “We shouldn’t have to go though this.”

“This is something that should be taught by parents or at least the parents be aware what is being taught to their kids,” Mary Palmatier said.

Others have been more blatant about their opposition to the reading, and Currie personally.

“The Orange County School Board won’t do anything, but the parents should get together and run this SOB out of the state,” businessman Jack Bailey posted to Facebook. “That is not hate speech. He has no right to try and influence third graders into thinking being queer is normal.

“I know he thinks he’s right, but it is scary to see what our little ones are exposed to. Blame the school board for hiring him anyway. He should teach in San Francisco if he wants to teach. He would be welcome there.”

The Beaufort Observer also issued an editorial that points out a troubling trend of educators using the guise of anti-bullying efforts to condition students to accept homosexuality as perfectly normal. That’s perhaps the underlying issue that’s driving parental outrage, and could ultimately convince Currie to look for work elsewhere.

“The fad du jour in public education these days is ‘stop bullying.’ And in many instances that is a commendable objective,” the editorial reads.

“But as you read (about the Efland King & King reading) remember this: ‘Bullying’ is a tool used by the homosexual industry to teach young children that homosexuality is not only ok, but in fact is something they should ‘appreciate.’ They could never get it included in public schools under its real cloak but instead have to use a subterfuge.

“And bullying is the mechanism for teaching that homosexuality is ‘the new normal.’”