State appeals court approves firing of teacher who read "divisive" children's book on gender. Katie Rinderle’s fifth-grade students voted overwhelmingly for her to read the book, but then a parent complained…

Where are the other parents? If my kid were in her class I’d sue the other parent for trivial disrupting my kid’s education

>Katie Rinderle, a former fifth-grade teacher at Due West Elementary School in Cobb County, read her students the book, *My Shadow is Purple*, in March 2023. The following day, a student’s mother complained to the school’s principal, assistant principal, and the area superintendent. A month later, education officials asked her to resign for violating district policy (which changed under a trio of state censorship laws passed in 2022. She [refused, was fired](https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2023/06/5th-grade-georgia-teacher-fired-for-reading-divisive-book-about-acceptance/), and later [sued to get her job back](https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2024/02/teacher-sues-school-district-after-she-was-fired-for-reading-a-book-about-accepting-others/). >Rinderle’s students voted overwhelmingly to hear the book. It’s an international best-seller by Australian author Scott Stuart, in which a boy doesn’t have a blue shadow like most boys or a pink shadow like most girls — instead, his shadow is purple: He plays with boys’ and girls’ toys, dances ballet alongside other girls, and competes in soccer alongside other boys. When he wears a combination skirt and suit to his school dance, he feels excluded from the boys and girls… until various classmates reveal that their own shadows are also different colors: like yellow, orange, green, and silver. >After reading the book, Rinderle asked her students to reflect on the book’s message of acceptance and write a poem about it. However, school officials told her the book contained “divisive” subject matter, the likes of which she says officials never explicitly told her about. >According to her lawsuit, the district’s policies do not expressly prohibit discussions of gender identity, gender conformity or nonconformity, or sexual orientation, and do not define terms like “controversial issues.” >During the Biden administration, the U.S. Department of Justice and 16 state attorneys general [filed two separate amicus briefs supporting Rinderle](https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2024/08/a-teacher-got-fired-for-reading-an-lgbtq-book-the-doj-16-states-are-now-helping-her-case/). However, the Georgia Board of Education upheld her firing, and the Cobb County Superior Court ultimately voted 4-3, ruling that the school district was within its rights to terminate her. I've read My Shadow is Purple. It's a lovely book I'd recommend to anyone. It is a book about the value of being kind of everyone you know, regardless of what makes them different. Kindness and love are somehow "divisive" to Christian nationalists. Apparently, bullying is okay in evangelical circles. 🤷🏿‍♂️

she should of read the story about the two daughters who had sex with their father from the Bible

Great. Next red states will reinstate witch trials.

I hope this woman files a hefty discrimination civil suit and gets PAID

The irony that Cobb is a “purple” county, if not blue at this point is laughable. The issue is the state and the conservative nut job school superintendent, Ragsdale. They just follow whatever direction the maga wind is blowing at any given moment to score c**** political points with their base so that they look like they’re super important. It’s crazy that in Georgia, you have all these ads for republicans running for governor. They’re basically all trying to out jerk the other by who hates trans people more. Theres no plan on improving anything in the state, just hate.

Someday, I truly hope we will look back on the ignorance that formed so many divisive laws and shake our heads in amazement. How could people have thought having a purple shadow, or a yellow, green or silver shadow, like other classmates, make for a story that offends someone? The book sounds charming! People need to grow up and stop worrying about so many things that are different but normal. Stop being so terrified of a fricken purple shadow.

Her fifth grade students voted to have her read the book by an overwhelming margin. That should have ended the debate right there. It's just like right-wing judges to defer to the collective judgment of the legislature and governor of Georgia instead of the collective judgment of an overwhelming majority of 10 year old kids. Fascists.

As Kent Brockman observed "Democracy just doesn't work"

Man, I hate conservatives and religious nutjobs...

Maybe if she’d read them the Terms and Conditions for a social media app, everyone would have been fine with it. Nobody reads those anyway.