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.

  • @lath
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    -2725 days ago

    Bigotry has nothing to do with it. The name registered is the one that should be used. If your registered name with the school is Richard, but you wanna be called Private Dick, then register it. If you can’t, then that’s another issue entirely.

    • @Dasus
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      525 days ago

      You’re a dog whistling bigot, nothing more. You think you have some gotcha with your logic because you’ve given this literally zero thought.

      For every single school I was in, you were asked in addition to your official name that what do you like to be called. Or rather, “which name is used”. I’ve several (three) first names, like my man Jack Black. He’s always been called Jack, by his parents, since he was a kid, but according to you, his teachers should’ve called him Thomas.

      What is Jack Black’s real name?

      I have three names, but ever since I was a kid, my “actual” (the one actually used) name has been a nickname if one of those three. In the sense of Richard being Dick for English speakers.

      Teachers would often just read out the names from a list, but after a few times of not getting my attention (because my ears don’t register my first name as well as my “actual” name), they’d start using the one that I was actually called.

      “If you want to have a nickname then register it formally”

      Which is way harder than a teacher accommodating kids… something that’s very much a key thing in the whole field of pedagogy.

      Also, if you changed your kids name to all the nicknames they’d have over the years, you’d end up doing it constantly and then they’d have a silly one when they grow up.

      Why can’t you understand how easy it is to just call someone the thing they prefer? Just how much of a shit do you need to be to refuse to say a different word for a thing?

    • @[email protected]
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      fedilink
      524 days ago

      The name registered is the one that should be used.

      Hi, I’m a teacher.

      The names I use are the ones that make the students comfortable. Trans student with parents who don’t accept it? Student is more important.

      If I change your name in the school system to “Cunty McNonce” - and, obviously, I have access - would it be okay to use that name? After all, that’s the record of official documents that the school uses to confirm a name.

      What you’re actually saying is that the personal desires of parents to control their children are more important than anything else. In human society, there’s generally some level of personal desire getting in the way: eliding that is a means to pretend that those who have power are more ethical than they really are.