Katie Rinderle, a veteran teacher with 10 years’ experience in the Atlanta suburb of Cobb County was fired by the county school district for reading a book supporting children’s journey to coming out as LGBTQ, the Associated Press reports, with the school board saying her decision to read the book to her fifth-grade class violated district policy.
Last March, Rinderle read “My Shadow Is Purple” by Scott Stuart at Due West Elementary School. The picture book is one of a series of books by Stuart, written for children betwen the ages of four- to eight-years-old that describes a child’s understanding of gender. The child notes their mother has a shadow “as pink as a blossoming cherry” and their father’s is “blue as a berry,” but theirs is purple.
The board made the decision, on a Party-line 4-3 vote, even though a panel of education professionals including retired teachers from the district recommended against firing Rinderle. Cobb County School District has a policy against teachers “espousing personal political beliefs.” The district’s lawyer said “the Cobb County School District is very serious about the classroom being a neutral place for students to learn. A one-sided viewpoint on political, religious or social beliefs does not belong in our classrooms.”