A teacher said he resigned from a Missouri junior high school after he was told to remove a gay pride flag from his classroom and to sign a letter saying he would not discuss human sexuality or gender with his students. The school hasn’t commented on the incident. A California high school teacher is being investigated by the school board after she revealed she'd got her students to pledge allegiance to the gay pride flag instead of the American one. By The Associated Press September 9, 2021, 2:04 PM 2 min read NEOSHO, Mo. “It’s something that’s so important to me, that my students have that safe space, that I wasn’t willing to continue in education without it,” he said. While many saw the funny side of the teacher’s post, suggesting the video was merely a joke, it. Removing the flag kind of felt like I was being complicit in suppressing and continuously marginalizing the students that have already been significantly marginalized, and I wasn’t gonna take a part in that.” Ball said he initially ignored the order to remove his flag, but then got a text from the assistant principal demanding he take it down, so he quit. Teacher branded a ‘wacko’ for pretending she told kids to pledge allegiance to Pride flag. Teacher Placed on Leave After Joking Her Students Could Pledge Allegiance to Gay Pride Flag this link is to an external site that may or may not meet accessibility guidelines. Ball, 33, told MLive: “To me, the flag stands for love and inclusion for everybody, not just for members of the LGBTQ community. Russell Ball, who identifies as bisexual, said an email went out to staff at Three Rivers Middle School on Friday telling them not to display the Pride flag-so he was left with no choice but to hand in his resignation Monday. You were hired because we believe you were the best candidate to do such.A Michigan middle school teacher says he told his bosses to shove their job after they ordered him to take down a Pride flag in his classroom. Your position in the Neosho School District is to teach speech and drama classes.
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On Twitter, Wallis explained what happened and why he resigned. Wallis taught speech, theatre, and world mythology at Neosho Junior High School, reported The Springfield News-Leader. Wallis told the paper that he was sent a letter from Cummins and asked to read it and sign it.Ī copy presented to The Springfield News-Leader read, “Our classrooms cannot become a personal platform for pushing one's personal agenda. Missouri teacher John Wallis resigned last week after his school district told him to take down a Pride flag in his classroom following complaints from parents. The letter read that Wallis was looking to pursue a different career. Leja, who is bisexual, told BuzzFeed News she's the only openly LGBTQ teacher at.
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Jennifer Leja teaches 7th and 8th grade in the Washoe County School District. In a statement sent to The Springfield News-Leader, Superintendent Jim Cummins said, “As per all personnel matters, there is a limited amount of information that is allowed to be shared by the school district.”Ĭummins said Wallis resigned by letter. A teacher in Reno, Nevada, is quietly protesting a ruling from her school board that says she can't engage in political speech in the classroom including the display of a pride flag. “This led to three or more calls from parents accusing me of pushing my agenda in the classroom,” Wallis wrote. Wallis said he was honest and told the class if they had a problem with who he was there were other classes they could take. UPDATE, 8/31/21: Kristin Pitzen, the California schoolteacher who posted video to social media of herself instructing students to say the pledge of allegiance to a Progress Pride flag, has been removed from her classroom pending the outcome of an ongoing investigation by the Newport Mesa Unified School District. When he took the flag and boards down, students asked why. “In fact, the use of the pride flag in my classroom was compared to hanging the Confederate flag in my classroom,” Wallis wrote.