A Georgia fifth-grade public school teacher is attempting to save her job in a termination hearing that concluded Friday after she was fired earlier this year for reading her students a book on gender identity the district says is prohibited in class instruction under state law.
Due West Elementary teacher Katie Rinderle, who has been on leave for more than a month after teaching for 10 years, was fired in March for reading the book “My Shadow Is Purple,” which features a nonbinary character and challenges the concept that there are only two genders.
“When I saw the book, at the book fair, I read it. I thought it was a wonderful book,” Rinderle said on the stand during the two-day hearing. Rinderle said her students chose the book out of several options she gave them.
Rinderle said the book was “about inclusivity, balance, acceptance and being true to yourself.”
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The hearing was initiated under a state law that protects teachers from unjustified firing. A panel of three retired school principals will make a recommendation on whether Rinderle should keep her job and submit it to the school board, which will decide to either accept or change the recommendation. The panel has five to make their recommendation, which the board plans to vote on at their next meeting.
Rinderle could appeal her firing to the state Board of Education and into court.
The case comes as parents and Republican lawmakers across the country attempt to remove books about LGBTQ+ subjects from school curriculum and libraries.
“This termination is unrelated to education,” Rinderle’s lawyer Craig Goodmark argued during the hearing. “It exists to create political scapegoats for the elected leadership of this district. Reading a children’s book to children is not against the law.”
The Cobb County School District says Rinderle broke the school district’s rules and Georgia’s new Divisive Concepts Law, both of…
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