SATELLITE BEACH, Fla. — Melbourne residents are showing support for a Satellite High School teacher whose contract isn’t being renewed after she used a students preferred name instead of their legal name.
Literature teacher Melissa Calhoun is accused of “knowingly” drfying state law by using a student’s preferred without permission from their parents. Calhoun is the first teacher in the state to lose her job under the state law.
What You Need To Know
- Teacher in Brevard County dismissed for using a student’s preferred name instead of their legal name
- Doing so without permission from the students' parents is a violation of state law
- More than 10,000 signatures have been collected to support the teacher’s contract renewal
- A large community rally was organized to protest the decision and support the teacher
Melbourne High School senior Lindsay Cunningham was one of the people who attended a rally Friday near the school in support of Calhoun.
“I just thought it was outrageous you needed parent approval for that. You shouldn’t have to have approval for something in a way you want to express yourself,” said Cunningham, who was a sophomore when Florida's Parental Rights in Education law went into effect.
Allison Minnerly, the deputy director of the Youth Action Fund, was one of the people who organized the rally.
“The state wants to make an example of (Calhoun) for correctly identifying a student by the name they prefer to be using,” Minnerly said.
Calhoun received a formal reprimand after an internal investigation. Then she was informed her annual teaching contract was not being renewed pending her teaching license being reviewed by the state of Florida.
More than 10,000 people have signed a petition demanding her contract be renewed.
Organizers say Friday's rally was to gather support for the public to attend the next Brevard County School Board meeting on Tuesday, April 22.
