“I was fired for refusing to lie to parents about their child’s gender-confusion”

2 March 2023

• Free Speech
• World

Reprinted from The Christian Institute [in the U.K.]

A Christian teacher in the United States has been fired after declaring she would inform parents if their child lived as if they were the opposite sex at school.

Jessica Tapia, who taught PE at Jurupa Valley High School in California for over six years, accuses her former employer of sacking her after she told them she could not comply with the state’s Department of Education’s policy, which also allows boys to use girls’ changing rooms.

She was made aware of the policy after students scoured through her social media, which included posts on Bible verses and radical gender ideology, and reported her for “unsafe” conduct.

“Law to lie”

In an interview with the podcast Just Listen to Yourself, Tapia explained that the school wanted her to be honest about her conduct yet “when it comes to parents being aware of the basic well-being and knowledge of their child, I cannot be honest. It’s absolutely mind-boggling to me”.

She added: “I made sure to clarify, too, with this district personnel that were sitting across from me. I looked them in the eye and I said, ‘Are you asking me to lie to parents?’ and they said, ‘Yes. It’s the law.’”

Speaking to Fox News Digital, Tapia added that encouraging children to believe they are the opposite sex isn’t “how God’s calling us to love”, saying “I believe firmly that God created man and woman, and you are who he made you to be”.

Religious liberty

According to reports, a notice from the Jurupa Unified School District told Tapia: “The district cannot accommodate your religious beliefs” that “prohibit you from maintaining a student’s gender identity and refraining from disclosing a student’s gender identity from his/her/their parent(s)/guardians”.

But in a statement, the district claimed that it did not discriminate against her on the grounds of religious belief.

California’s Department of Education website states: “Disclosing that a student is transgender without the student’s permission may violate California’s antidiscrimination law by increasing the student’s vulnerability to harassment and may violate the student’s right to privacy.”

Religious liberty group Pacific Justice Institute is supporting Tapia and plans to file legal action against the school district.

U.K.

In the U.K. last month, a senior Government minister said that teachers in England and Wales who want their schools to uphold the reality of biological sex are being put under pressure to keep quiet.

Teaching staff have complained that schools prevent them from following the Government’s legal advice in the absence of clear guidance from the Department for Education (DfE).

The minister told The Mail on Sunday that teachers who “want to do more to push the stop button when they see children questioning their gender”, feel that they are “being abandoned”.