Brevard Country Public Schools will not rehire the veteran Florida English teacher at the center of an LGBTQ+ controversy over using a student's preferred name, according to local news reports.
Melissa Calhoun, who taught at Satellite High School and had worked in Brevard County schools for over a decade, was initially reprimanded by the district in April for calling the student by the name they wanted to use.
Her case marked one of the first high-profile incidents of a teacher being disciplined for such a reason in a state that has led the charge for strictly applying anti-LGBTQ+ laws to K-12 classrooms. The rebuke led to her contract not being renewed and her professional certificate being placed under state review. Calhoun ultimately got to keep her teacher's license under a recent settlement.
The situation arose from Florida’s 2023 law restricting the use in public schools of names and pronouns that don’t align with a student or employee’s sex assigned at birth.
However, by the end of July, the Florida Department of Education's Education Practices Commission reached a settlement with Calhoun that allowed her to teach on probation for one year, fined her $750, and required her to complete an ethics and education course.
Nonetheless, Brevard County will not rehire Calhoun, according to a statement Superintendent Mark Rendell shared with local media outlets.
"Teachers hold a powerful position of influence, and that influence must never override the rights of parents to be involved in critical decisions affecting their children," said Rendell. "This was not a mistake. This was a conscious and deliberate decision to engage in gender affirmation without parental knowledge."
Calhoun, who taught the student before and after the 2023 law, told News 6 that using the student's preferred name was a mistake. "There wasn’t any intention to subvert this parent’s wishes," she said. "This happened out of habit and frankly was an unfortunate oversight on my part."
Rendell said he expects Calhoun to complete the state's one-year probation requirement "before any consideration of employment."
Four months prior, Calhoun posted on LinkedIn that she was looking for work elsewhere, primarily in corporate training roles.
Calhoun's situation comes as "Don't Say Gay" and other anti-LGBTQ+ state laws raise questions for teachers on how to navigate relationships with students and parents while staying within legal bounds.
According to a survey conducted by RAND Corp. between April and May 2022, when some of the earlier laws were passed and implemented, about 1 in 4 teachers reported that local and state restrictions on race and gender topics had influenced their choices of curriculum materials or instructional practices.
Even outside of states with restrictions, teachers have reported feeling spillover impacts, according to the research.
Teachers told RAND that teaching students under the new laws made the job more difficult, including making it more challenging to engage students in learning, support their critical thinking skills, and develop their ability to engage in different perspectives and build empathy.
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