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ANALYSIS: Someone complained shirt is ‘anti-trans’; district cites board dress-code policy — despite no students being present
A Colorado elementary school teacher allegedly was reprimanded for wearing a shirt emblazoned with “XX-XY,” a popular symbol for noting there are only two genders.
But Stacy Adair said she was attending a pre-school-year inservice — a teacher professional development at which no students were present.
In an interview with Fox News, Adair, a Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Education (CLDE) teacher at Wilson Elementary School, said she wasn’t even informed someone complained about the shirt “until a week later,” and that “nobody noticed any disruption” on the day she wore it.
One of Adair’s peers allegedly had claimed the shirt was “anti-trans.”
“It’s not anti anything,” Adair told Fox News’s Trace Gallagher. “Biological facts are facts, and teachers above everybody else should be focusing on facts and biology and things that are … true.”
In a statement, Colorado Springs Schools District 11 Executive Director of Engagement Jessica Wise cited Board Policy GBEBA which “establishes professional expectations for employee attire, including clothing that does not disrupt the educational environment.”
Wise said a shirt with a pro-LGBTQ message “would be evaluated under the same policy and standard as any other attire.”
The text of the policy, which begins on page 48 of the district Employee Handbook, appears to be relevant for the presence of students.
While it notes “professional dress is required of all District employees” and that “employees must exercise good judgment in their choice of professional appearance for work and work-related activities,” among other things the policy states “student performance, achievement, and preparation for lifetime success are positively affected by the professional appearance of the District’s staff.”
Host Gallagher referenced a similar situation at a recent WNBA game at which a mother and daughter were informed they had to “cover up” their XX-XY t-shirts. The home team, the Atlanta Dream, eventually issued an apology.
When Gallagher asked Adair if she expected an apology from the school, she replied she “would like” one but surmised it “would go [in] the other direction.”
“I’m dumbfounded that they’re saying that I was disruptive, because ask anybody at that meeting and there was no disruption whatsoever,” she added.
Adair was joined in the interview by a representative of the Teacher Freedom Alliance, whose website states it “support[s] the right of every educator in America to pursue excellence in the classroom free of ideological interference.” Adair was named the Alliance’s “Teacher of the Year” last September.
As a former public school teacher who attended innumerable teacher workshops over 25-plus years of service, I can confirm it is common practice for educators to wear clothing at pre-school year workshops (t-shirts, shorts, flip-flops, and the like) that they wouldn’t normally during the regular school year — precisely because students are not present.
MORE: Judge allows ban on parents protesting males in girls’ sports via ‘XX’ wristbands
