Georgia Board Uphold Firing of Teacher Who Read ‘Gender Non-Binary’ Book to Fifth Graders

A former Georgia teacher who was fired for reading to her fifth-grade class a book promoting the idea of gender fluidity will not get her job back, the state’s education board said. The teacher, Katie Rinderle, had been teaching at Due West Elementary School for 10 years. She was fired last August by the Cobb County School Board after parents complained about her reading her mostly ten-year-old students a picture book called “My Shadow Is Purple,” which encourages young readers to “be true to themselves” and explore “beyond the gender binary.” Written and illustrated by Australian author Scott Stuart, the book uses colors of shadow as an analogy of gender norms, whereas a boy’s shadow is blue, while a girl’s shadow is pink. It focuses on a six-year-old boy who has a purple shadow and enjoys a range of both stereotypically masculine and feminine activities, implying that he is what LGBTQ activists would call gender non-binary....