Casey Scott, a teacher at a school in Florida, said she was given the sack for discussing her pansexual identity with students.
She was dismissed from Trafalgar Middle School in Cape Coral after an art class in March where students reportedly asked her about her sexuality.
Scott encouraged students to express their own identities through activities, such as drawing Pride flags, and explained what being pansexual is to them.
“A discussion happened in class and because of that, now I’m fired,” she told NBC2.
She stuck some of them to her classroom door before being told to remove them by the school.
Scott also confirmed that she threw them away and added: “They said it would be in the best interest if I got rid of them now.”
The teacher was working at the school on a probationary basis and was apparently told not to return to the campus because her contract was being terminated.
The school board responded to Scott’s claims that she was fired for the discussion by stating that she was dismissed for straying from the mandated curriculum.
Lee School District also stated that they had received complaints from parents who were concerned about the artwork and discussions surrounding sexuality.
Scott’s firing comes amid a period of intense debate over what students in Floridian schools should be taught, with the state’s governor, Ron DeSantis, signing the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill on 28 March.
The legislation, which is officially called the Parental Rights in Education bill, will restrict “classroom discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity in primary grade levels or in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students.”
LGBTQ+ activists are fearful that it could totally limit any discussions or lessons on identity, the community’s history and the oppression it has faced – prompting its ‘Don’t Say Gay’ nickname.
A spokesperson for the Lee School District told GAY TIMES that it “exercised its right to terminate the teacher’s probationary contract because she did not follow the state mandated curriculum.”
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