FARMERSBURG, Ind. — An Indiana high school teacher whose comment that she believes gays have no purpose in life has been suspended amid tighter security at her school.

Superintendent Mark Baker of the Northeast School Corp. in western Indiana’s Sullivan County issued a statement saying the teacher has been placed on administrative leave out of concern “for the safety and security of everyone in our buildings.”

He added that “as a precaution” the Sullivan County Sheriff’s Department and Indiana State Police “have deemed it necessary to station an officer” at North Central Junior-Senior High School in Farmersburg, about 75 miles southwest of Indianapolis.

Baker said the “administration and one school employee in particular” at the school have received “aggressive email messages.”

“We are turning over to law enforcement all such communications,” he said.

Baker did not identify the teacher, but special education teacher Diana Medley’s comments were met with widespread criticism amid news coverage of an alternative prom dance at a nearby school that would ban gay students.

In the interview with a local television station, Medley said that gays served no purpose in life, and equated LGBT teens to students with developmental disabilities.

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“It’s the same thing with my special-needs kids,” she said. “I think God puts everyone in our lives for a reason.”

Medley also said that the idea of LGBT teens attending a prom was “offensive,” adding that she believes homosexuality is a choice, and that no one is born gay.

Last week, Baker issued a statement that Medley was merely “expressing her First Amendment rights.”

Medley has no published telephone number and she couldn’t be reached for comment Wednesday.

Associated Press contributed to this report.