US school teacher sacked after reading Aussie book to class
A US primary school teacher is forced to resign or terminate her contract after reading an Aussie book to her class.
Katie Rinderle, from Cobb County, Georgia wanted to teach her fifth graders about inclusion and acceptance through Aussie author Scott Stuart’s book, My Shadow is Purple.
The book itself explores this through the theme of “gender beyond the binary” and the story of a child who neither identifies as a boy or girl.
Rinderle discussed the main message behind the book before asking them to reflect and write their own poem, which has been praised by some parents.
However, not all of them were happy about Rinderle’s initiative and one parent filed a complaint which led to an investigation.
Rinderle was sacked for violating the Divisive Concepts law, which disallows teachers from educating about divisive concepts and was given the notice of termination on June 6.
Investigators reportedly deemed the book to be “pornographic” material which included “inappropriate topics”.
Stuart, the author of the book, responded to the situation and shared his “disgust” on TikTok.
“A teacher’s just been fired for reading one of my books,” he said in the video.
“(She) had parents reaching out saying that this kind of lesson was something that they wanted in the class. This is a teacher who gets phenomenal feedback from the principal, the students, the parents.
“Her teaching is described as transformative and key to the school’s success,” he defended Rinderle.
“This whole thing just really goes to show how much more interested the school system in the US is in playing politics than they are in educating kids,” he added
“It’s gross. It’s disgusting.”.
Cobb County School District has responded to the situation in a statement to FOX 5 and claimed that any action taken was “appropriate considering the entirety of the teacher’s behaviour and history”.
“The District remains committed to strictly enforcing all Board policy, and the law,” the statement concluded.
Rinderle will face a termination hearing in August.
Images: TikTok