Georgia teacher fired for reading children鈥檚 book about acceptance in class
When elementary school teacher Katie Rinderle read aloud the international, best-selling children鈥檚 book to her fifth grade gifted class at Due West Elementary School in Cobb County, Georgia, earlier this year, she never suspected that she was risking her 10-year career.
Rinderle had recently purchased the book by Australian author Scott Stuart at the school鈥檚 Scholastic Book Fair. Before she read it, the students voted on a variety of books Rinderle offered and overwhelmingly chose My Shadow is Purple, which was nominated for a 2023 Australian Book Industry Award. After the reading, the class discussed the book鈥檚 message of acceptance of oneself and others and embracing diverse and complex identities and experiences.
The students reflected upon how they, as academic achievers, are often perceived as different from their peers. They discussed the importance of recognizing and accepting people as individuals. And they expressed how supported the main character must have felt when they found friends that accepted them and valued them for their differences and uniqueness.
Rinderle then asked her students to self-reflect and write a 鈥渟hadow鈥 poem.
Their reflections were personal, profound, neither divisive nor aimed at others. 鈥淢y shadow is white, an underestimated thing,鈥 one student wrote. 鈥淲hen mixed with colors, it can do amazing things but left by itself it鈥檚 kinda bland.鈥 Another wrote, 鈥淢y shadow is purple and now I do know that everyone鈥檚 different and not to be woe [sic] when my heart glows and tells me to see it鈥檚 fine to be me.鈥
And it wasn鈥檛 just students who responded positively to the reading.
鈥淚 feel that these types of conversations are necessary to have, and the end result would hopefully lead to less cases of bullying in our schools,鈥 one parent said in an email.
Less than a month later, the Cobb County School District gave Rinderle the choice to resign or be terminated for violating the district鈥檚 policies. She refused to resign. On May 5, she was told she would be terminated by the district, and she was issued her official notice of termination on June 6.
Rinderle is the first known public school teacher to be fired under Georgia鈥檚 trio of censorship laws passed in 2022. They are the Protect Students鈥 Rights Act, commonly known as the 鈥渄ivisive concepts鈥 law; a 鈥淧arents鈥 Bill of Rights;鈥 and one known as the 鈥渉armful to minors law,鈥 which allows for the removal or restriction of materials parents deem 鈥減ornographic鈥 or otherwise harmful. Together, the laws censor class discussion, give parents the right to refuse instruction they disagree with and ban 鈥渙ffensive鈥 reading materials from school libraries. If Rinderle鈥檚 experience is any indication, she will not be the last to be terminated, advocates say.
Rinderle isn鈥檛 taking the situation lying down. She is working with her union, the Georgia Association of Educators and the Goodmark Law Firm to fight her unjust termination.
In the Video: Teacher Katie Rinderle recalls how reading Scott Stuart鈥檚 My Shadow is Purple to her fifth grade class led to her termination.
鈥淣one of the reasons given by the district for Katie鈥檚 termination are based in fact or sufficient to justify the termination of this exceptional teacher,鈥 said Craig Goodmark, a Georgia education attorney representing Rinderle at the public termination hearing scheduled for Aug. 3.聽鈥淕eorgia public schools need聽teachers like Katie, and Cobb County seems more interested in playing politics than educating young people. It鈥檚 a shame.鈥
To this day, the district has never answered Rinderle鈥檚 main question: What exactly does 鈥渄ivisive concepts鈥 mean?
鈥淪chool districts label certain topics 鈥榩ornographic鈥 and 鈥榙ivisive,鈥欌 Rinderle said. 鈥淵et when I asked [school administrators] what 鈥榙ivisive concepts鈥 means, they said they didn鈥檛 know and told me they would research it. They never told me.鈥
鈥淚t鈥檚 so important to teach children to be supportive of each other, true to each other and to themselves,鈥 Rinderle said. 鈥淭he lives, experiences and self-identities of students should be validated and celebrated. Children are especially harmed when they are not made to feel loved, appreciated and validated for who they are and their uniqueness.鈥
Teachers on high alert
Public schools have become the political battleground between those who support the teaching of historically accurate, inclusive school curricula and right-wing politicians who seek to erase our nation鈥檚 uncomfortable history. These politicians 鈥 and the parents who support them 鈥 accuse public school teachers of indoctrinating the nation鈥檚 students with 鈥渨oke鈥 ideology. As a result, teachers are in the crosshairs of classroom censorship laws and policies and a few activist parents seeking to enforce those laws as broadly as possible.
鈥淭eachers are concerned that they will be subject聽to a complaint for simply teaching honestly about U.S.聽history,鈥 said Deborah Menkart, executive director of , a nonprofit organization dedicated to building social justice in the classroom.聽
Menkart co-directs the聽, which hosted a National Teach Truth Day of Action on June 10, along with聽, the , and more than聽50 co-sponsoring organizations, including the Southern Poverty Law Center鈥檚 Learning for 人兽性交 (LFJ) program. A local Georgia event took place the same day at Stone Mountain and was hosted by the .
鈥淭he critiques seem disingenuous and designed to intimidate or threaten the teacher and limit what can be taught.鈥 Menkart said.
Since January 2021, legislators in have introduced bills or taken other steps that would ban or restrict teachers for discussing racism and sexism, according to Education Week. Eighteen states have enacted laws that impose bans and restrictions on teaching about race and racism.
and enacted classroom censorship laws last year. Georgia followed with a similar law labeling certain topics and classroom discussions as 鈥渄ivisive.鈥
鈥淐lassroom censorship laws are intended to create confusion and fear among educators,鈥 said Michael Tafelski, senior supervising attorney for the Children鈥檚 Rights Practice Group at the 人兽性交. 鈥淭hey were designed to whitewash what children learn and permit loud voices that do not represent the majority to stifle and control the education of our children.鈥
Teacher and students suffer
Before the speedy unraveling of her teaching career, Rinderle had been promoted in 2022 to teach the school鈥檚 high-achieving and gifted students in the first through fifth grades. The program鈥檚 multicultural emphasis has a stated goal of building a global, civic-minded student body 鈥 a laudable goal at a school where 37% of the 633 students are nonwhite and only 3% of the teachers are nonwhite.
Until she read My Shadow is Purple, Rinderle received only stellar reviews from the school principal.
鈥淵our ability to plan and instruct students BLOWS me away,鈥 the principal wrote in one of many such handwritten notes. 鈥淵ou are rocking this role,鈥 she wrote in another. She described Rinderle鈥檚 teaching and leadership at the school as 鈥渢ransformative鈥 and 鈥渒ey to its success.鈥
The day after Rinderle read My Shadow is Purple, a Cobb County middle school teacher 鈥 and mother of one of Rinderle鈥檚 fifth grade students 鈥 complained to the principal, assistant principal and the area superintendent.
The following day, Rinderle was summoned to the school principal鈥檚 office twice for separate meetings about the book.
Rinderle said of the second meeting, 鈥淲hen I asked why this book was available in our school鈥檚 recent Scholastic Book Fair, especially if it was not deemed 鈥榓ppropriate,鈥 there was not a clear answer that could be given. When I asked if there was a specific list of books or topics that were not allowed in inclusive libraries, the principal stated, 鈥楴o.鈥 When I asked if there was a rule or policy I was unaware of, she told me she wasn鈥檛 sure and she believed it was just considered 鈥榙ivisive.鈥 She told me parents were 鈥榯alking鈥 and had emailed to complain.鈥
On March 13, Rinderle was placed on paid administrative leave, put under a gag order and told not to set foot on the school property. She was told that an investigation of the circumstances would be initiated.
School administrators never told the students that their beloved teacher was not returning to class, only that they had found a great replacement for her. Anxious parents messaged and emailed Rinderle, worried about her and their confused children.
鈥淢y daughter was very worried about her teacher and suspected that all wasn鈥檛 well,鈥 one parent said, 鈥渁s it was not normal for Ms. Rinderle to miss consecutive days of school.
鈥淓motionally, she was distraught when her class was informed by the school聽counselor that Ms. Rinderle was gone for good,鈥 the parent said. 鈥淢y daughter broke down in school and had to have a private session with the school counselor to work through her emotions. Ms. Rinderle鈥檚 class was one of the highlights of her school week. In her absence, my daughter described the class experience as 鈥榗haotic鈥 and 鈥榣acking direction.鈥 She no longer enjoyed it.鈥
Sarah-SoonLing Heng Blackburn, deputy director of LFJ鈥檚 Learning in Schools program, said she wasn鈥檛 surprised by the students鈥 agitation.
鈥淥f course, this has an emotional effect on students,鈥 Blackburn said. 鈥淔or any kids who fall outside the white, Christian, heterosexual society conservatives are promoting, when they see an adult get in trouble, punished, they feel less secure in who they are. They lose an adult they can turn to. 鈥 [What happened to Rinderle] reveals to the child that the ideas they are told 鈥 freedom of expression, of belief, of speech, of religion 鈥 aren鈥檛 true.鈥
Over the following weeks, the district held three recorded investigatory conferences with Rinderle. Participating in various capacities were Christopher Dowd, the director of employee relations; the school principal; the lead investigator; and a representative from the Georgia Association of Educators.
According to an investigatory conference recording, Dowd communicated to Rinderle: 鈥淣ot every topic will be specifically in black and white on topics [you] can and cannot teach which is why the language allows for a broader spectrum on 鈥榠ssues鈥 to navigate.鈥 Dowd repeatedly referred to 鈥減ornographic鈥 material and聽鈥渋nappropriate topics.鈥 Despite receiving a complaint from less than a handful of parents, in the second meeting, the lead investigator specifically told her that she was 鈥渋neffective in the community,鈥 and that there was a 鈥渞evolt against you.鈥 They referred to the book as divisive during the conferences.
Rinderle was forced to clean out her classroom in late April, around the time that the Georgia Professional Standards Commission announced plans to 鈥渄iversity,鈥 鈥渆quity鈥 and 鈥渋nclusion鈥 from its proposed fall 2023 K-12 rules and standards. The changes take effect July 1.
On May 5, Dowd informed Rinderle that the Cobb County School District 鈥 the second largest in the state 鈥 intended to terminate her. Though the county鈥檚 formal disciplinary policy spells out 鈥減rogressive discipline,鈥 the district decided that Rinderle鈥檚 reading of My Shadow is Purple was 鈥渆gregious鈥 enough to ignore that policy.
鈥淲hat happened to me is not just about me,鈥 Rinderle said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 the impact of what is being communicated to students 鈥 that it is acceptable to prioritize behaviors and attitudes rooted in bias and discrimination rather than ensuring that students鈥 backgrounds, experiences and identities are seen, heard, connected and honored in their learning experience. Censorship is not only a threat to our students, teachers and public school classrooms 鈥 but to our democracy at its core.鈥
Photo at top: After reading My Shadow is Purple aloud to her fifth grade class, Katie Rinderle, a teacher in Cobb County, Georgia, was fired amid complaints that the book espouses 鈥渄ivisive concepts.鈥 (Credit: Calvin Florian)
