cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/18749281
The Wisconsin English teacher, Jordan Cernek, argues in the suit that the district violated his freedom of religion and free speech in mandating the use of the students’ preferred names and pronouns.
A high school English teacher is suing a Wisconsin school district, alleging it did not renew his contract last year because he refused to use the preferred names of two transgender students.
Jordan Cernek’s federal lawsuit alleges the Argyle School District violated his constitutional and civil rights to be free of religious discrimination and to be able to express himself according to his religious beliefs when it did not renew his contract because he refused to abide by a requirement that teachers use the names or pronouns requested by students.
(Uplifting because a bigot got the consequences he deserved, not because the whiny piece of shit sued over it.)
Asshole loses job because of said assholery is a reasonably uplifting news story I’d say.
Jo. And what faith even prohibits changing names? Bigotry? Or is that in some old book?
The teacher believes he is being discriminated against because the state won’t allow him to discriminate against society’s most vulnerable members, who happen to be in his care.
You can’t make this stuff up.
I’m currently working at a school with a trans kid. She’s an absolute delight and if I hear anyone in the district dead name her, there will be hell to pay. I’m so glad schools are getting rid if jackasses like this guy.
What does the student have down on their paperwork? I’m just thinking that there could be some confusion if the old name was on everything instead of their preferred name.
Does someone at the school try to correct the records in some way in that situation?
Our system actually has a fill in for preferred names for both faculty and students and will use that on all documents if you check the box. I myself use it and my badge, logins, and even timeclock have my nickname instead of my legal name. I only know her real name because her dossier was upfront about being trans.
Official documentation doesn’t have any bearing on what you call someone in class. It’s literally no different than calling William by his preferred name of Will.
I mean, I’m sure this only came up because he was specifically asked by the student or the student’s friends to use their preferred name and he said, “Jesus would send me to hell if I did!”, which is terrifying.
Not terrifying in the idea that Jesus will send you to hell for using a trans person’s preferred name, because he won’t, but terrifying that somebody believes that and lives their life worshiping a horrible monster that would do that to a human being.
Back in the 90s, most of my teachers would ask the class on the first day if they had any (school appropriate) nicknames they prefer to be called.
Just make this a requirement.
My 6th grade teacher did exactly this, but went beyond normal nicknames and said if there’s ANYTHING you want to be called she would use that name instead. Granted, every teacher before that would hear the nicknames and just use them anyway, but this one went a step beyond that.
Not a single kid used their birth name. Some used regular nicknames, some used their parents nickname for them, and some chose something else. I went the cringier route and chose “silent hill because I like that game and I’m usually quiet” and sure enough she called me that all year. Had the nicknames down by the end of the week and still knew each child’s real name for when she’s talking to other adults.
I don’t see what the big deal is with using someone’s preferred name. Legitimately the only reason to not use it in this context is to be a piece of shit.
Throughout all of my years at school, ending in late 2010s they always at some point around first day asked something similar too, but it was mostly just another name you go by rather than nickname.
Totally agree they should do something like that as a requirement, though.
A kid in my class hated his first name Courtney, and went by his middle name, Roger (preferably Rodge), because there were several other girls in our grade named Courtney, and people had made fun of him for having a “girls name,” even though Courtney is technically not gender specific.
Please stop bringing this kind of crap into “uplifting news.”
This is objectively sad news. I’m not happy a kid isn’t getting supported by his teacher at school. While it’s probably good he was fired for it, it’s not what I’d call “uplifting” at all.
Ah, allow me to introduce you to the orphan crushing machine. It was born of a tweet:
“Every heartwarming human interest story in america is like “he raised $20,000 to keep 200 orphans from being crushed in the orphan-crushing machine” and then never asks why an orphan-crushing machine exists or why you’d need to pay to prevent it from being used.”
