Georgia board upholds the firing of Cobb teacher
The Georgia Board of Education on Thursday upheld the firing of a Cobb County teacher who read a book that challenges gender norms to fifth graders.
Katie Rinderle was removed from her Due West Elementary classroom almost a year ago after reading students a book called “My Shadow is Purple” by Scott Stuart. Some parents complained to the school’s principal that they were not informed about the content of the book ahead of time. Rinderle maintained throughout a twoday hearing and afterward that the book was about inclusivity. She was fired in August, and filed an appeal the next month.
At their meeting Thursday morning, the state board voted unanimously to affirm the Cobb County School Board’s decision without discussing it.
The state board was obligated to uphold Cobb’s firing if there was “any evidence” to support the district’s decision, according to the state’s decision. In its 21-page review, it found that Cobb’s policies are not “unconstitutionally vague,” as Rinderle and her attorneys alleged, and that her firing was not a “predetermined outcome.”
Georgia law gives either Rinderle or the school district 30 days to appeal the state board’s decision in Cobb County Superior Court. Rinderle will continue to pursue all legal options, one of her attorneys said in a statement to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“We are not surprised by the decision from the state board. This is why we filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of Ms. Rinderle and other teachers in the state,” said Mike Tafelski, senior supervising attorney for the Southern Poverty Law Center and one of Rinderle’s attorneys. “We are seeing this growing wave of censorship across Georgia and the country, threatening public education and our democracy.”
Rinderle, a current Cobb teacher and the Georgia Association of Educators are suing the district and its leaders for discrimination related to her firing. The 35-page complaint filed last week in U.S. District Court in Atlanta, alleges that the plaintiffs “have been terminated or fear discipline under (Cobb’s) vague censorship policies for actively and openly supporting their LGBTQ students.”
Rinderle is believed to be the first public school teacher in Georgia to face consequences under state laws passed in 2022 that limit what teachers are allowed to discuss in the classroom. She’s also the first to file a federal challenge to the Georgia policies, her attorneys said last week.
“The school board’s decision to fire me undermines students’ freedom to learn and teachers’ ability to teach,” Rinderle said in a recent statement through the Southern Poverty Law Center.
In the months since Rinderle was fired, the Cobb County School District has removed books it has deemed to be sexually explicit from its libraries, spurring debate about what power the district has to make those decisions. Marietta City Schools took similar steps. This year’s legislative session brought with it a series of bills that aim to restrict content available in school libraries, including one that would expose librarians to criminal prosecution.