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.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    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!

    • Samvega@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      3 months ago

      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.

      • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        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!

    • rc__buggy@sh.itjust.works
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      3 months ago

      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.

    • unalivejoy@lemm.ee
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      3 months ago

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

  • betterdeadthanreddit@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    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.

    • Samvega@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      3 months ago

      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.

  • TheAlbatross@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    3 months ago

    The part of the gospel of Luke where he writes that Jesus said “oh and trans people? Not a fan, we shouldn’t respect em.” always did strike me as kinda out of the blue, but it is in there…

    • jerkface@lemmy.ca
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      3 months ago

      God hates figs. Everyone knows that. But while researching the a joke to reply to you with, I learned that apparently, figs are jews. Who knew!!

      Never did come up with a joke.

    • Skua@kbin.earth
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      3 months ago

      The bible would surely never support people changing their names to reflect their social role either, like when Jesus gave Simon the name Cephas or Peter to reflect his position as the rock the church was founded on

    • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      3 months ago

      Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ.

      6 Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but like slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart.

      7 Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men,

      8 because you know that the Lord will reward everyone for whatever good he does, whether he is slave or free.

      9 And masters, treat your slaves in the same way. Do not threaten them, since you know that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favoritism with him.

      (Ephesians 6:5-10)

      The direct words of Jesus, not the Old Testament god.

      This was a man who told people to give up their worldly possessions… But what, giving up but concept of owning humans as slaves was just a step too far?

      What a bunch of bullshit. Disgusting, and inexcusable.

      • wjrii@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        That’s Paul, not Jesus, though I guess to hear the last 1700 years of Christians tell it, there’s not much difference.

  • ImADifferentBird@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    3 months ago

    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?

    • Sharkwellington@lemmy.one
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      3 months ago

      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?

      • Enkrod@feddit.org
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        3 months ago

        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.

  • Zahille7@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    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.

    • quantumantics@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      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.

    • TallonMetroid@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      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.

      • Zahille7@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        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.

  • swampwitch@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Don’t know what happened to “love thy neighbour”/The Golden Rule, but some Christians sure are struggling with that part of the Bible.

    • callouscomic@lemm.ee
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      3 months ago

      Most Christians have always struggled with that part.

      Setting aside religion, I used to have a shitty boss who would never shut up about how the platinum rule is better than the golden rule (treat people how they want to be treated), but them would proceed to never actually follow it and never really understood how he treated people.

      People suck in general at just giving a shit about others. They just want to sound and feel like they give a shit without actually following through.

      • optissima@possumpat.io
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        3 months ago

        People who claim that that’s not already part of the golden rule don’t understand the golden rule anyway.

      • linearchaos@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        That’s the church modernization strategy right there.

        Here are the rules you should follow the rules.

        Preacher, I disagree with the rules. The rules make me feel icky.

        You should just do your best end repent and give back in another ways. By the way this month’s tidings are a little light can you help us out.

        • callouscomic@lemm.ee
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          Gave my parents the excuse they needed to never have to face everyone they’ve hurt.

          “I’ll have to answer to God for that, not to you.”

          How convenient. I’ll just sort out my abusive childhood myself I guess.

    • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      3 months ago

      To be fair, there’s a lot of contradictions in there regarding how one should treat other humans.

      For example, Jesus endorsed slavery, which doesn’t seem very “love thy neighbor” to me…

      • Hackworth@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        Small point of clarification - God endorsed slavery. Jesus doesn’t say anything about it.

          • Hackworth@lemmy.world
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            3 months ago

            It depends on the denomination, interestingly. Jehovah’s Witnesses see Jesus as a created being, separate from and subordinate to god the Father, and view the Holy Spirit as god’s active force rather than a person. Mormons believe in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as separate beings united in purpose, rather than one god in three persons.

            • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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              3 months ago

              I’m willing to bet this guy believes Jesus is God, it’s the predominant belief in the religion regardless of a few sects having their own fanfictions.

  • Mediocre_Bard@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Yep, and good riddance.

    If students do not feel respected, then they will neither give respect nor learn. You call a kid what they want to be called. Without a sense of shared community, the classroom will fail.

    Additionally, there is not a religion on earth that says you can’t use people’s nicknames, preferred names, chosen names, or whatever. This guy can go eat a bag of Dicks.

    • Wrench@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      We had two kids my age that wanted to be called by Final Fantasy character names. AFAIK, no one had any problem with it.

      • mosiacmango@lemm.ee
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        3 months ago

        I had a classmate that hated her name that went by Peaches. She would politely correct each teacher each year, and it was done.

        The only time I ever saw her have an issue was with a shitheel sub who refused to call her that, and the class literally revolted. Started yelling “thats her name” and “what’s your problem!” We just brutalized that dude for the whole class hour about it. Never saw him again.

        It was great.

  • SeaJ@lemm.ee
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    3 months ago

    What religion requires you to use someone’s birth name? It can’t be Christianity since people always go around calling that one dude Jesus when his birth name was Yeshua.

    • Samvega@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      3 months ago

      show common decency

      Ah, but isn’t it persecution to tell someone who has an ideology of hatred against an outgroup to show decency to them?

      At least, that’s what their told from the pulpit and from behind the presenting desk.

  • ObliviousEnlightenment@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Just wanna point out, noone is threatening the teachers right to be a dick, just lost his government job over it. This is basic seperation of church and state. A member of a racist religion would be fired for trying to only teach white kids.

    • CeruleanRuin@lemmings.world
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      3 months ago

      It’s pretty weak to begin with to claim it’s his religious right to be an asshole to people. If some kid was named Alphonzious and wanted people to call him Al, but you insisted on using the name he hates instead, that’s just you being a huge dick, and it’s the school’s prerogative to fire you for it. Gender doesn’t even come into it.

      Go ahead and claim your religion requires you to be an obnoxious toolbag bully to children. Good luck finding work, shitheel.

  • Ilovemyirishtemper@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Whelp, Walker neutered our teachers’ unions, and the conservatives pushed for being a right to work state, so here are some unexpected consequences of that. They do not have to tell him why his contract wasn’t renewed, and now he doesn’t have a union backing his position. Plus, he wasn’t even “fired,” just not renewed.

    F this teacher for creating an environment of hate.

    • jerkface@lemmy.ca
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      3 months ago

      Teachers don’t even have a union? WHY DO YOU HATE YOURSELVES SO MUCH??

      • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        Because unions are villainous commie organizations who do nothing but sap your paycheck and eat god fearing children. The worst part is they have a better villain laugh than the politicians. Really they just had to be stopped!

  • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    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

    Fun fact: when your religious beliefs include a mandate to trample on the rights of others based on pure bigotry, you and your obnoxious interpretation of bronze age fairy tales can fuck off.

    • Blum0108@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      I also am unsure of where in the Bible it states that pronouns are immutable.

        • girlfreddy@lemmy.ca
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          Genesis 5: 2 says “Male and female he created them, and he blessed them.”

          I like to point to the word ‘and’, just to make sure Xtians notice it doesn’t say ‘or’.

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            Genesis 5: 2 says “Male and female he created them, and he blessed them.”

            In an English translation. I’d be interested to see what subtleties in the original text didn’t make it over.

        • Sharkwellington@lemmy.one
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          3 months ago

          And Native Americans have 5 genders.

          Weird that entirely separate and different societies all come to the conclusion that there should be more than just 2 genders that are locked in at birth.

          It’s almost as if each person is unique and shoehorning people into only one possible way of living based on your sex is archaic and holding us back from living our most fulfilling lives.

      • Sterile_Technique@lemmy.world
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        Idk, but the lady on Fox said it was against my religion, she sounded really sure of herself, and it lines up nicely with my bigoted personality. I think this one’s safe to just take at face value and assume it’s part of my religion. It’s what I’m told Jesus would do!!

  • Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works
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    Good. Who the fuck wants their children being taught by intolerant bigots? What kind of example is that setting for them? Freaks like this shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near kids.