Teacher faces sacking after reading book with non-binary character to class

A teacher in the United States is fighting to keep her job after reading an Australian children’s picture book to her class.

Katie Rinderle says she bought My Shadow is Purple at a school book fair and then put it in a list of options her students could choose to read back in March.

The fifth-grade class – usually aged 10 or 11 – at Due West Elementary in Georgia chose My Shadow is Purple, which centers around a non-binary character.

It was written and illustrated by Melbourne-based best-selling children’s book creator Scott Stuart and published last year.

“Students just engaged in the book with me and then we discussed the message that they received,” Ms. Rinderle said in a video for the Southern Poverty Law Center.

“That’s what our conversation really was focusing on was the power of not only embracing your unique differences and abilities but then valuing those in others and learning from those.”

A couple of days later her principal asked to see the book, which she said was prompted by a parent complaint.

According to local media, Ms. Rinderle was placed on administrative leave during an investigation and is now facing termination, with a public termination hearing scheduled for August.

FOX 5 Atlanta reported Ms. Rinderle’s lawyer Craig Goodmark said the Cobb County School District claims Ms. Rinderle violated Georgia’s Divisive Concepts Law passed in 2022.

The law was introduced to ban educators from discussing certain topics when teaching about race or history.

In a statement to local media, the school district said: “Without getting into specifics of the personnel investigation, the District is confident that this action is appropriate considering the entirety of the teacher’s behavior and history. However, as this matter is ongoing, further comment is unavailable. The District remains committed to strictly enforcing all Board policy and the law.”

In Australia, the book’s author was disgusted by the ordeal.

“The teacher is fighting the termination but this whole thing just really goes to show how much more interested the school system in the US is in playing politics than they are in educating kids,” Mr. Stuart said in a video posted to social media. “It’s gross. It’s disgusting.”

According to Southern Poverty Law Center, during the investigation, words like “pornographic” material and “inappropriate topics” were repeated.

“To be very clear – there is nothing sexual or pornographic about this book. It’s a book of acceptance and inclusion,” Mr. Stuart wrote in the caption of his video. “We need to be supporting teachers, not vilifying them.”

He also pointed out the teacher had bought the book at her school’s book fair.