HAPPY ENDING

School Board Lets Trans Teacher Keep Her Job

KlugFor once, there’s a happy ending to a story about ignorant parents attacking a transgender teacher: the school board of Lumberton, Texas has decided to stand by Laura Jane Klug, and returned her to her duties in the school system.

A couple of parents had complained about her presence, and administrators pulled her out of classes while they tried to figure out what to do. Delightfully, they reached the correct conclusion: do nothing, allow a successful teacher to do her job and let everyone move on with their lives.

Klug had to sit through a school board meeting last Thursday while they debated her future. It was standing room only, with thirteen individuals speaking up — which is a ton, considering it’s a small-town municipal meeting. Part of that meeting included public comment, and you can probably guess the kind of things that ignorant members of the public wanted to bring up. No surprise, someone mentioned bathrooms. Ugh.

Another speaker suggested that she be barred from teaching younger grades. Because discrimination is OK if you only do it a little bit.

At the end of the night, the board hadn’t made a decision, but after a closed-door conference Klug is back in the classroom, as she should be. She’s said that she won’t discuss her gender identity in the classroom, which is probably a good idea for now since it would just cause a lot of agitation. But cis teachers probably refer to their genders all the time without repercussions, so it would be nice if a day could come when Klug doesn’t feel the need to self-censor.

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