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.

202 points

He better not fucking win. Apart from it being bigoted against trans kids, this opens the door for teachers to give kids whatever insulting nicknames they want. Call the clumsy kid the r-word? Don’t violate his free speech! Call the black kid the n-word? The Book of Mormon clearly says black people are inferior! Don’t violate his freedom of religion!

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45 points

He better not fucking win. Apart from it being bigoted against trans kids, this opens the door for teachers to give kids whatever insulting nicknames they want.

Put Elon back in school and call him Cis.

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15 points
*

No need. He’s already getting schooled on his own platform daily by trans, intersex, nonbinary, and cis people of all ages, sexualities, races, and nationalities.

He’s a unifier: uniting the world in opposition to his bigotry and general obnoxiousness!

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6 points

I don’t think he is capable of learning, sadly.

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28 points

He better not fucking win because a public school teacher needs to check their religion at the door. The SC said that private businesses can practice their religion as part of commerce but this is the public sector. Kim Davis lost her case about refusing the same sex marriage license due to “her religion” and this should follow.

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6 points

Only the Spanish teacher is allowed to do that. Michael -> Miguel.

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-1 points
5 points

We had a similar case in the UK, and the teacher lost their case after taking it to an employment tribunal. Hopefully this one goes the same direction.

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120 points

Good, fuck off. He can find a new job where he’s not expected to treat his fellow humans with the respect they deserve. Being wrong about the nature of reality doesn’t grant the right to be an asshole even if they sincerely believe that it should.

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52 points
*

Since I realised it, I have never forgotten that applying basic decency to all living beings is a revolutionary act that will be resisted in various ways, including violence, by those who uphold a status quo based on forced inequity.

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6 points

Sucks for the violent

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106 points

I mean, good. If he isn’t going to do even the single most basic thing to connect with his students and meet them where they are, how can he ever be an effective teacher?

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47 points

Right? Some of these kids see their teachers more than their actual parents. Could you imagine having to deal with such blatant disrespect every day from someone that is meant to be your role model?

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6 points

I can, I did, it fucked me up mentally. I’m 41 now and still suffer some of the consequences of the abuse by my peers and one especially vicious teacher.

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5 points

My condolences. I’m sorry that happened to you.

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85 points

Idk man. When I was in school before everyone started coming out as trans and such, all my teachers would still ask if there was a different name you preferred on like the first day of school. And they suck to it. It didn’t matter if the student was gay, straight, trans, or whatever; they still had a preferred name they liked to be called by, the teachers asked, and they respected it. I’d like to think those teachers of mine would continue this practice and not have an issue with it, but you never really know.

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7 points

That was my experience as well, but then I grew in San Francisco, which is like the gay hippie commie Mecca that the Christofascists jerk themselves off on hating. Plus we had a lot of minority students with potentially difficult to pronounce ethnic names, so that might also have been a factor.

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1 point

Makes sense. My personal experience with this is coming from a small Midwest city in elementary and middle school. By the time we got to high school, the teachers just knew because it was in your record by that point.

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5 points

I have young kids in school currently. At the open house, that’s the very first thing they asked.

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4 points

Teacher here; this is the first thing I do on day one with new students! You want to build a classroom community of mutual respect; failure to do so makes for a hostile classroom and a wasted year.

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81 points

I’m not trans.

I hate my legal name. I will change it when I’m ready to do the paperwork. Until then, everyone calls me the name I prefer.

I would have been a thorn in this teacher’s side. I’m not answering to that name, asshole. I’m not writing it on any documents. I’m allowed to tell you what to call me for whatever reason I want. My mother’s best friend, who I was named for, was an abusive fucking cunt to me and every time you say her name I’m reminded of her.

What a douche. Stop policing names. The only names worth policing are the ones that are remarkably dumb.

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13 points

Probably wouldn’t have a problem calling Michael Mike. Would they have a problem calling someone by their birth name if it didn’t follow traditional gender norms? (I knew a girl named Michael)

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2 points

I’m reminded of the story of a woman who found out a co-worker was trans and insisted on calling them by their birth-name in order to “honor their mother” despite being told by supervisors and HR not to.
This same woman was married and got very upset when called by her maiden name.

She did not see the contradiction.

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2 points

Every once in a while I’m confronted with something like this and I have to remind myself… lots of very stupid people in the world.

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-9 points

nah. I think there’s room. religious shit should be banned from public use (as in, use by public institutions) , and I don’t think we should have a robert e lee or nathan B forest high school any more than we should have an erwin rommel elementary or a reinhardt heidrich middle school.

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