An elementary school teacher was suspended in the Midwestern state of Ohio because she had books featuring LGBT people in her classroom library, USA Today reported on Friday, December 6. The American, named Karen Cahall, decided to sue her school district.
“Cahall has sincere and deeply held moral and religious beliefs that all children, including LGBTQ+ children or children of LGBTQ+ parents, deserve to be respected, accepted and loved for who they are,” the teacher writes in his complaint, filed earlier of December.
The teacher was suspended for three days with salary withholding, according to the media. He filed a complaint against the management of the school’s board of directors, its members and the school’s superintendent.
Karen Cahall has been a teacher for more than 30 years at Monroe School in Clermont County, Ohio, and plans to retire in January 2025.
Strict regulations on controversial issues
According to USA Today, the school’s board of directors adopted new regulations in 2009 on all issues “that may arouse both support and opposition” within the teaching community or among parents.
This regulation states that these topics can be taught to students as long as they are related to educational objectives, that they encourage open-mindedness in students, and that teachers do not attempt to “indoctrinate students or persuade them to adopt a point of view.” .
Non-curricular subjects are possible as long as they are previously validated by the school director.
A mother complained
According to the complaint filed by the teacher, the latter was suspended due to the presence of 4 books with LGBT characters in a library that contains more than 100 works.
None of his books had explicit sexual content. They spoke of people “who feel different and excluded,” according to the complaint. However, the mother of one student considered that the books were inappropriate and wrote an email to the establishment, which initiated disciplinary proceedings against the teacher.
In a letter, the superintendent of the establishment assured Karen Cahall that he knew perfectly well that the 4 books in question were controversial “since you had requested that they be included in the library, but had suffered a rejection. He then placed them in the library of your class without going through the school’s validation process.
“I sincerely hope that you internalize the disciplinary actions you are receiving and reflect on them so you can change,” the superintendent said in the suspension letter to Karen Cahall. “However, if you continue to behave in this way in the future, you will be subject to more severe disciplinary measures up to and including dismissal,” he threatened.
The presence of books with LGBT characters in schools or public libraries has been debated in certain American states in recent months or years. Notably, a Florida district banned books on racial or LGBT topics in 2023, while Iowa has banned books on gender identity through sixth grade starting this year.
Source: BFM TV
