Aussie Author Speaks Up For US Teacher Sacked Over Children’s Book About Gender
Melbourne-based best-selling author Scott Stuart has sent a message of solidarity to a US school teacher who was sacked after she read his book about a non-binary child to her class.
Katie Rinderle, a fifth-grade teacher in Cobb County, Georgia, had picked up Stuart’s book My Shadow is Purple at a book fair and read it to her class in March 2023.
The book is about a child whose dad has a shadow that’s “blue as a berry”, and Mom’s is “as pink as a blossoming cherry”. The child’s shadow is purple and learns that there are “more than two colours our shadows can be.” The book’s blurb says that the “story considers gender beyond the binary in a vibrant spectrum of colour”
Following one parent’s complaint, Rinderle was placed on administrative leave and given the option of resigning or getting sacked. She refused to resign and on June 6, Rinderle was issued a termination notice for violating the state’s Divisive Concepts Law. The law enacted in 2022, allows school districts to classify certain topics as ‘pornographic’ and ‘divisive’.
First Teacher To Be Sacked Under Georgia Law
In a video by Southern Poverty Law Center, Rinderle explained that the conversations in class focussed on “the power of not only embracing your unique differences and abilities but then valuing those in others and learning from those.”
According to SPLC, “Rinderle is the first known public school teacher to be fired under Georgia’s trio of censorship laws passed in 2022.” The hearing in connection with Rinderle’s sacking is scheduled for August 2023.
Education Week reported that since January 2021, around 44 states have introduced bills or taken steps to bar teachers from discussing racism and sexism. Around 18 states have enacted laws that ban teaching students about race and racism.
‘US Schools Are Playing Politics’
@scott.createsAnd the book was purchased AT THE SCHOOL at a book fair.♬ original sound – Scott Stuart
Melbourne-based Stuart, whose book was nominated for the 2023 Australian Book Industry Award, in a video message on TikTok defended Rinderle. “This entire thing is so disgusting,” posted the children’s author.
“To be very clear – there is nothing sexual or pornographic about this book. It’s a book of acceptance and inclusion. We need to be supporting teachers, not vilifying them.”
In the video, Stuart said that the incident just goes to show that school systems in the US were more interested in “playing politics than they are in educating kids”.
Stuart had gone viral on TikTok for dressing up as Queen Elsa to support his son. My Shadow Is Purple is a follow-up to his best-selling book My Shadow Is Pink.
