A Florida teacher claims that she was fired after discussing her status as a “pansexual” with students earlier this Spring.
Cape Coral middle school art teacher Casey Scott claims that students were curious about her sexual orientation and that she had the conversation with them back in March, which she followed by telling the students to draw pictures showing their sexual orientations.
“The subject matter angered some parents and students who wrote to administrators to voice their displeasure,” the New York Post reported. “Scott, who was working on a probationary basis and not part of the teachers union, was eventually told not to return to campus and that her contract was being terminated.”
“A discussion happened in class and because of that, now I’m fired,” Scott claimed in an interview with NBC2. “I like anyone despite male, female, non-binary, transgender.”
The Lee County School District said that Scott was fired from Trafalgar Middle School because she did not follow the mandated curriculum.
Scott reportedly displayed the pictures that her students drew of their sexual orientations for everyone at the school to see and was told to take them down.
“They said it would be in the best interest if I got rid of them now,” she said. “I went over to the recycling bin. I grabbed all their flags and all the kids were staring at me. And I crumbled their flags in front of them.”
The firing came just days before Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis signed the “Parental Rights in Education” bill into law, which strengthens parents’ rights to make decisions about how their children are educated.
“The bill prohibits classroom instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity in kindergarten through 3rd grade and prohibits instruction that is not age appropriate for students and requires school districts to adopt procedures for notifying parents if there is a change in services from the school regarding a child’s mental, emotional or physical health or well-being,” the governor’s office said of the bill. “The bill builds on the Parents’ Bill of Rights, which was signed into law in Florida last year, and is part of Governor DeSantis’ Year of the Parent focus on protecting parental rights in education.”
DeSantis said in a statement that Florida was leading the nation in fighting for the rights of parents and the role they play in raising their children.
“Parents have every right to be informed about services offered to their child at school, and should be protected from schools using classroom instruction to sexualize their kids as young as 5 years old,” DeSantis said.