Teacher who sued school over gender secrets policy harassed by staff, students

A teacher who sued her school district over its radical gender policy says she was compelled to request paid leave due to harassment from liberal teachers and students.

Elizabeth Mirabelli’s leave comes less than a month after she and fellow teacher Lori Ann West filed the suit in federal court, alleging the school’s gender policy forces them to lie to parents about their kids’ gender identity at school, violating their religious beliefs and First Amendment rights.

Immediately after the lawsuit was filed on April 27, other teachers at Rincon Middle School in Escondido, where the plaintiffs both teach, were prominently wearing rainbow flag pins, said the teacher, according to Fox News.

“It also seemed to me that various teachers were spreading false rumors about this lawsuit and what it is about,” the teacher wrote in a sworn statement. “For me, this lawsuit is about not stepping between parents and their children. That relationship is sacred. I never want to deceive parents or teach children that it is okay to lie to their parents.”

As an example of the harassment she was forced to endure after the suit, Mirabelli said 15 small posters, handmade by children but likely coordinated by adults, were put up in her classroom, including some with cruel messages.

“Have a despicable day,” said one of the posters; “Be Accepting It’s 2023,” said another; “I thought school was a place where we can be accepted, not judged by sexists and racists,” said a third, which were all featured in a photo at Fox News.

“Instead of protecting me and attempting to calm things down, Rincon Middle School allowed various teachers to either directly harass me for this lawsuit or use students as intermediaries to harass me,” Mirabelli alleges in her statement. “Thus, at the end of the day on Monday, May 1, my attorney had written the attorney for the Escondido Union School District to ask that I be placed on paid administrative leave.”

Thomas More Society Special Counsel Paul Jonna, who is handling the lawsuit on behalf of Mirabelli and West, said that the harassment and the school’s policies are just more byproducts of a system that is built on pitting educators against parents.

“The real outrage here, is that schools are requiring educators to hide critical information from parents about their child’s well-being,” Jonna said in a statement, according to the Daily Citizen. “Rather than partnering with parents to help raise up young people with a well-rounded education and breadth of knowledge, these radical agendas are pitting parents and teachers against one another, to the detriment of their students.” 

The case is scheduled to be heard on June 26.