Florida teacher loses job for calling student by preferred name [View all]

It’s the first known dismissal stemming from the conservative campaign to limit schools' recognition of transgender identity.

A Florida high school teacher lost her job after calling a student by an alternative name without parental permission, sparking community backlash in the conservative birthplace of Moms for Liberty as school officials sought to comply with state law.

It’s the first known dismissal resulting from the campaign to shut down recognition of alternative gender identities — a policy piloted by Florida that spread to other Republican states and now has been taken up by the Trump administration.

Melissa Calhoun had taught in Brevard County for 11 years when she ran headlong into a state rule that bars school staff from deviating from students’ legal names without written parental permission. The rule applies to students who choose an alternative name because of a change in gender identity, as well as those who might want to use a nickname. In this case, Calhoun was respecting the wishes of a student whose legal name is associated with girls, a person familiar with the situation said.

One of the student’s parents complained to the school district, which investigated the matter. The teacher admitted to knowingly using an alternative name without permission, district spokeswoman Janet Murnaghan said in a statement. This “directly violates state law” and district procedures, she said. The teacher received a letter of reprimand and was told last week that her annual contract, which expires in May, was not renewed, though she will finish out this school year.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2025/04/10/florida-teacher-loses-job-gender-identity/

What a fucked up country Republicans are forcing us all to live in.