cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/18749281
The Wisconsin English teacher, Jordan Cernek, argues in the suit that the district violated his freedom of religion and free speech in mandating the use of the students’ preferred names and pronouns.
A high school English teacher is suing a Wisconsin school district, alleging it did not renew his contract last year because he refused to use the preferred names of two transgender students.
Jordan Cernek’s federal lawsuit alleges the Argyle School District violated his constitutional and civil rights to be free of religious discrimination and to be able to express himself according to his religious beliefs when it did not renew his contract because he refused to abide by a requirement that teachers use the names or pronouns requested by students.
Back in the 90s, most of my teachers would ask the class on the first day if they had any (school appropriate) nicknames they prefer to be called.
Just make this a requirement.
My 6th grade teacher did exactly this, but went beyond normal nicknames and said if there’s ANYTHING you want to be called she would use that name instead. Granted, every teacher before that would hear the nicknames and just use them anyway, but this one went a step beyond that.
Not a single kid used their birth name. Some used regular nicknames, some used their parents nickname for them, and some chose something else. I went the cringier route and chose “silent hill because I like that game and I’m usually quiet” and sure enough she called me that all year. Had the nicknames down by the end of the week and still knew each child’s real name for when she’s talking to other adults.
I don’t see what the big deal is with using someone’s preferred name. Legitimately the only reason to not use it in this context is to be a piece of shit.
Silent Hill LMAO, I love it. I once asked a teacher to call me Mega Man and she told me to fuck off.
This is not uplifting. This is a lose-lose as it is a case that is very likely to find its way in front of this particular Supreme Court.
Eventually, SCOTUS will either rule that this does in fact violate his religious rights, or they will make a ruling siding with the school district that destroys part of the civil rights act, which is cited all throughout his filing:
"…repeatedly cites the 1964 Civil Rights Act and its Title VII section prohibiting workplace discrimination”
Lmao. Teachers don’t get free speech, they’re acting in loco parentis. Anything detrimental to a child in their care is grounds for dismissal. Just depends on the school.
Oh, you’d be surprised the states that would disagree with you.
Well…maybe “surprised” isn’t the word. I assume you follow the news. Maybe “deeply saddened with humanity and it’s inability to tolerate those different than them” is a better word…although I suppose that’s many words.
Oh well. Life is funny like that. Always surprising you. Or…rather deeply saddening with humanity and it’s inability to tolerate those different than them as it were.
The teacher believes he is being discriminated against because the state won’t allow him to discriminate against society’s most vulnerable members, who happen to be in his care.
You can’t make this stuff up.
I can understand how difficult it would be to call your son or daughter by a different name. But if I am introduced to someone, and they tell me their name is Molly; I’m gonna call them Molly. You’d have to be a real piece of work to go out of your way to call them something else.
But then again, paperwork and role call, etc for the school – How was that printed out? Because I am fucked when it comes to names and remembering shit. If roll had “Greg” printed on it, but Greg wanted to be called “Molly”; I’d have a hard time flipping that in my head every day when I’m reading one thing and having to change it to another. It’s like that mental test where you read the word “Blue” but the word is in red and you’re supposed to say what color the word is.
So I’d like to know - did identification from the school match their preferred names? If not; why not? The school might be just as at-fault here.
I feel like remembering people’s names properly is a superpower teachers have. I sure as Hell don’t understand how they manage it, but in my experience they consistently manage it.
(Besides, I assume they could just annotate the attendance list with the preferred names/pronouns on the first day of school.)
Was a teacher. I used tricks like assigned seating with a name chart until I learned each name. It’s just repetition, and anyone could do it. Usually took me about a week to get them all. And if you forget a name during that week, you just ask. It’s not a big deal. I would always say something like, “Sorry, I know you. I’m getting it.”
Pretty sure that’s what they do. When I was school most teachers had trouble pronouncing some names, so they’d just ask us what we preferred to be called, or how we’d prefer our names to be pronounced and they’d make a note.
Most kids had nicknames that they preferred to use anyway, so that’s what how they’d be addressed. All official paperwork had the given name, but their friends, and teachers would just refer to them by the name they preferrred…which is why this whole name situation is just baffing to me. I’m guessing they didn’t renew his contract for other/additional reasons, this is just his way or trying to hit back
I’m guessing they didn’t renew his contract for other/additional reasons, this is just his way or trying to hit back
Imagine how ridiculously terrible he must be if this self-report is his idea of trying to make himself look less bad, LOL!
From this article it sounds like he’s one of those religious nuts trying to force their views on everyone. He probably starts off every conversation with “well, you know, as a Christian.”
It’s never about religion with a POS like this, it’s almost always about control. Hopefully the lawsuit gets tossed before it costs the school district too much money, and he can go work at a religious school where his views will probably not cause waves
They get a lot of practice since it is part of their job with all the nicknames that differ from class rosters and also see the same kids every weekday, grade their papers with their names on it, etc.
Most, and maybe all, School Information Systems (SIS) that are used have a field for nicknames/preferred names because of how common nicknames are.
I was always called by the “shortened, nickname” version of my actual first name, in Catholic school, starting in 1975. Plenty of other kids where, too: Richard, Rich; Robert, Bob; Jennifer, Jenny; Elizabeth, Beth. There is no problem referring to someone with their preferred name.
I will confirm that it requires real conscious effort to use someone’s preferred pronouns, when you have been referring to them with different pronouns all their lives, as well as having the deep inertia of the English language set like concrete in your brain – especially when they themselves are navigating the minefield of gender identity as a teenager right along with you. I do tend to rankle a bit at “constructed” pronouns (think “xe”), because I feel that insisting that everyone immediately use placeholder words that have not firmly made their way into the lexicon is asking a bit too much. I will happily use the singular they/them; that’s something which has been in common usage that way for a very long time, and is not gender specific.
Maybe something like “xe” will end up as common usage, and I’m fine with that, too. Being old, it would certainly take me more time and effort to adopt that than younger people would have to expend, and I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.
A teacher gets to know their students and will use nicknames like Bill and Jim in place of. William and James on request. Any teacher who doesn’t do that is an asshole who shouldn’t be teaching kids.
This teacher lost their job because they continued to refuse to use the child’s preferred name and tried to hide behind bigotry as a justification.
No part of Christianity says anything about names.
Dude’s just a bigot.
Thank fuck for Janet p on the Wisconsin supreme court!
My parents told me that not wanting to use my birth name is not “honoring my mother and father”, which is what the bible says to do.
Yeah… that’s a bit of a stretch to me, but an interesting interpretation I had not imagined. Good to have some insight in to how others think. Thanks for sharing that.
I agree it’s a stretch, because as an adult I’m not subject to their demands. And I don’t follow their dumb religion anyways so why would it even matter to me, lol.
And I hope when people marry, they don’t take the husbands name as a family name… I mean that’s the same concept and not honoring the parents of the wife. I think if you believe in that, everyone absolutely also needs to stick with their maiden name.
Not taking his name in vain includes claiming to be a person of God but acting otherwise
See ya
(Uplifting because a bigot got the consequences he deserved, not because the whiny piece of shit sued over it.)
Please stop bringing this kind of crap into “uplifting news.”
This is objectively sad news. I’m not happy a kid isn’t getting supported by his teacher at school. While it’s probably good he was fired for it, it’s not what I’d call “uplifting” at all.
But it is uplifting seeing a bigot face consequences.
Ah, allow me to introduce you to the orphan crushing machine. It was born of a tweet:
“Every heartwarming human interest story in america is like “he raised $20,000 to keep 200 orphans from being crushed in the orphan-crushing machine” and then never asks why an orphan-crushing machine exists or why you’d need to pay to prevent it from being used.”
Most teachers will get really mad if their students casually call them by their first name.
My civics teacher’s wife called one time during class and it went to the answering machine, “Hi Ernie”, whole class bursts into laughter. Def called him Ernie a few times.
Repeat after me: There’s a difference between free speech and being a bigot.
