Teachers are facing blowback amid conflicts over using students’ preferred names and pronouns.
The latest case comes from Florida, where district officials declined to renew a Satellite Beach high school teacher’s contract after she called a student by their chosen name without parental permission. Officials say she violated a state law that bans the practice.
Florida is among several Republican-led states, including Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Montana and North Dakota, that passed laws that either require parental permission for teachers to use a student’s preferred name or pronoun or make it permissible for teachers to ignore preferred names or pronouns regardless of whether parents consent. Indiana’s law requires schools to report when students request to use an alternate name or pronoun to parents.
It’s the first time a Florida teacher has lost a job since Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the legislation in 2023.
Elsewhere, school districts nationally have faced legal challenges after reprimanding teachers for refusing to use transgender or nonbinary students’ preferred names or pronouns.
A Virginia teacher who refused to use a student’s preferred pronouns was awarded $575,000 after filing a lawsuit against the school district he worked for more than five years ago, according to court filings and attorneys in the case. In March, a Wisconsin school district settled a lawsuit filed by one of its teachers who was fired after failing to use a transgender student’s preferred pronoun. A former teacher from the Oakland Unified School District sued the school district in December when she said she was fired after refusing to use a student’s preferred pronouns.
The Brevard Public Schools’ decision to fire Satellite High School AP English teacher Melissa Calhoun began after an investigation determined she was calling a student by the student’s preferred name instead of the student’s legal name, said Janet Murnaghan, a spokesperson from the district. Calhoun has taught in the district for 12 years.
Murnaghan said Calhoun told the district she “knowingly did not comply with state statute.” FLORIDA TODAY, part of the USA TODAY Network, reached out to Calhoun but did not receive a response.
The teacher’s action violated the Florida Board of Education rule signed by DeSantis that says any student who wishes to go by an alternative name, whether a simple nickname or a name that correlates with a transgender identity, must have their parents sign a Parental Authorization for Deviation from Student’s Legal Name Form.
“BPS supports parents’ rights to be the primary decision-makers in their children’s lives, and Florida law affirms their right to be informed,” Murnaghan said.
Calhoun will finish her contract, which expires in May, Murnaghan said.
The school district’s decision also elicited support for Calhoun’s reinstatement from community members this week.
A group held hands in front of the school’s flagpole after dismissal April 10 and gathered in the parking lot with signs in support of Calhoun. Many others drove past, shouting Calhoun’s name and cheering from the windows of their cars.
An online petition to reinstate Calhoun reached more than 13,000 signatures by the evening.
Students circulated a petition at Satellite High School supporting Calhoun and garnered 284 signatures, said Ryan Matrigali, a junior at the school. Many of those signatures came with comments expressing disgust and dismay over the decision not to keep Calhoun.
A handful of community members, some with handmade signs, also showed up at a school board meeting April 8 to speak in support of Calhoun.
Kristine Staniec, a media specialist at Satellite High, said Calhoun’s violation of the law was done without “malicious intent.”
“My colleague and child’s teacher was let go after just two weeks of internal review,” Staniec said. “There was no harm, no threat to safety, no malicious intent, just a teacher trying to connect with a student, and for that, her contract was not renewed.”
Matrigali, the junior at Satellite High, said Calhoun is “beloved” at the school.
“Ms. Calhoun is a teacher loved by all of her students,” he said. “Her goal was to make everyone feel welcome … and to enhance their learning experience.”
The American Civil Liberties Union’s Florida chapter also is supporting Calhoun.
“Administrators should strive to retain great teachers, not toss them out merely for being respectful,” said Daniel Tilley, legal director of the ACLU of Florida, in a statement to FLORIDA TODAY. “Every student deserves a learning environment where they feel seen, safe, and supported.”
It’s unclear whether the Brevard Public Schools case will become a precedent for other teachers who don’t comply with Florida’s law. The rule doesn’t lay out what the consequences are for teachers and other staff members who don’t comply.
School districts have also come under fire after reprimanding teachers who refused to call students by their preferred names or pronouns. They’ve paid out thousands for those actions.
A Wisconsin school district paid $20,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by one of its teachers who was fired after failing to use a transgender student’s preferred pronouns.
Argyle High School teacher Jordan Cernek said in an interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, part of the USA TODAY Network, that the question came up at a school meeting about new Title IX criteria. Administrators told him there would be a new policy to make the district more inclusive of identities other than heterosexual males and females.
Cernek said he was uncomfortable complying with the changes.
“I know God our creator has created males and females, and there’s no changing of that reality, so I began to question some of those things that were being told to us,” Cernek said.
The district initially allowed Cernek to not use the student’s preferred pronouns on the grounds of religious objection, but two months later it changed its position, according to court records.
After praying and thinking it over, Cernek said, his mind couldn’t be changed. He said he did try addressing students through gestures rather than names and pronouns.
Eventually, he got a letter from the school telling him the accommodation was no longer working.
Six months after he received the letter, Cernek’s teaching contract was not renewed, according to a lawsuit he filed against the school district. The Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, a Milwaukee-based law firm representing conservative interests, said terminating Cernek because of his beliefs was unconstitutional and violated the First Amendment and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Cernek said he was not seeking to return to his job but hoped the case would establish a principle that government institutions can’t force people to say things against their beliefs.
Similarly, a Virginia teacher who refused to use a student’s preferred pronouns was awarded $575,000 after suing his former school district, according to court filings and attorneys.
High school teacher Peter Vlaming avoided using he/him pronouns when referring to a transgender student, according to court records.
West Point Public Schools Superintendent Larry L. Frazier Jr. had told USA TODAY the school system was pleased to come to an agreement “that will not have a negative impact on the students, staff or school community of West Point.”
The school has since adopted policies issued by Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin that say school staff “shall refer to each student using only the pronouns appropriate to the sex appearing in the student’s official record – that is, male pronouns for a student whose sex is male, and female pronouns for a student whose sex is female.”
Disputes over state laws that dictate how teachers address their transgender and nonbinary students have spurred student activism in Iowa, where a state bill proposed protecting teachers from punishment if they incorrectly used a student’s preferred pronouns or name. Advocates said the legislation was needed to create fewer “distractions” in the classroom and give teachers more freedom and protection.
Students spoke out against the bill during the legislative session, the Des Moines Register, part of the USA TODAY Network, reported.
JD Wilson, a 9-year-old student who uses they/them pronouns, said the legislation would harm transgender kids in Iowa’s K-12 schools.
“This bill allows kids to be bullied,” Wilson said.
Another Iowa student, 14-year-old Berry Stevens, who uses they/them pronouns, said the bill allowed adults and students in schools to go out of their way to dehumanize others.
“When I was in sixth grade, I decided to transition to different pronouns and a different name. Since then, I have had kids constantly use my own name as a weapon against me,” Stevens said. “You have no idea what it’s like to wake up each morning wondering if one of your peers is going to hurt you next just because you present yourself slightly differently.”
Melissa Peterson, a legislative and policy director with the Iowa State Education Association, called the bill a solution in search of a problem.
“This legislation is unnecessary,” Peterson said “I would also argue is a distraction for more important issues that are facing us in our public classrooms today.”
The measure failed to proceed in the Iowa state House.
Contact Kayla Jimenez at kjimenez@usatoday.com. Follow her on X at @kaylajjimenez.
