An Australian children’s author has leapt to the defence of a US teacher who faces losing her job after she read his book about a non-binary child to her class.
Katie Rinderle, a fifth grade teacher from Cobb County, Georgia, was recently forced on administrative leave while the school district investigates whether she has violated the state’s new divisive concepts laws.
She bought ‘My Shadow is Purple’ at a book fair at Due West Elementary which she read to her students at the school in March, followed by a class discussion about inclusion and acceptance.
Students were then asked to self reflect and write their own shadow poem.
Written and illustrated by Australian author Scott Stuart, the story centres around a non-binary child who doesn’t identify with being a boy or a girl.
Ms Rinderle could become the first teacher to be fired under a trio of Georgia’s censorship laws, including the recently enforced Protect Students’ Rights Act, commonly known as the ‘divisive concepts’ law.
Mr Stuart has weighed into the controversy to launch a scathing attack on school systems in the US and insists there’s nothing sexual or pornographic in his book banned in several American states.
Katie Rinderle faces a termination hearing in August over reading a children’s book to her class
He has also expressed his disgust that the much-loved teacher may now lose her job after a parent complained about ‘pornographic’ material and ‘inappropriate topics’ in the book.
‘This entire thing is so disgusting,’ Mr Stuart said.
‘To be very clear – there is nothing sexual or pornographic about this book. It’s a book of acceptance and inclusion.’
‘We need to be supporting teachers, not vilifying them.’
Mr Stuart doubled down on his support for Ms Rinderle in a TikTok video which showed examples of her students’ ‘profound’ reflections of the book along with positive feedback from their parents.
‘So a teacher has just been fired for reading one of my books,’ he began.
‘It had parents reaching out saying this kind of lesson was something they wanted in the class.’
Ms Rinderle vowed to fight the termination and faces a hearing in August.
‘This is a teacher who gets phenomenal feedback from the principal, her students, the parents,’ Mr Stuart continued.
‘Her teaching is described as transformative and key to the school’s success.’
My Shadow is Purple was nominated for a 2023 Australian Book Industry Award.
It was described as a heartwarming and inspiring book about being true to yourself, and one that considered gender beyond binary in a vibrant spectrum of colour.
‘This whole thing just really goes to show how much more interested the school system in US is in playing politics than they are in educating kids,’ Mr Stuart fumed.
‘It’s gross, it’s disgusting.’
The Cobb County School District told FOX 5 it’s confident its actions are ‘appropriate, considering the entirety of the teacher’s behavior and history’ and remains committed to strictly enforcing all board policy and the law
The teacher’s termination sparked a furious response from the book’s author Scott Stuart
My Shadow is Purple is about a non-binary child who doesn’t identify with being a boy or a girl
Ms Rinderle’s lawyers argue the new divisive concepts laws passed in Georgia last year make no mention of gender or sexuality.
‘Divisive concepts or controversial issues laws … they’re vague. They’re very difficult to understand, and now in practice out in our public schools they’re being used to take good teachers and remove them from the classroom,’ attorney Craig Goodmark said.
‘She’s not giving up, she believes that she has not violated any rules or policies that she understands. She believes that she created a lesson that was a legitimate lesson,’
Ms Rinderle says the district has never answered her question of what exactly does ‘divisive concepts’ mean?
‘School districts label certain topics ‘pornographic’ and ‘divisive,’ Rinderle said.
‘Yet when I asked [school administrators] what ‘divisive concepts’ means, they said they didn’t know and told me they would research it. They never told me.’
Mr Stuart’s support for the teacher from the other side of the world sparked widespread support.
‘Having your books available when I was a kid would have been GAME CHANGING. hope that teacher gets a positive outcome,’ one viewer commented.
It also prompted support from US educators who vowed to stock Mr Stuart’s book on library shelves.
A school librarian in the Pacific north-west wrote: ‘We have 3 copies of My Shadow is Pink, and two copies of My Shadow is Purple. They are in our top 10 checked out books in our library. I have read it to every student in our school. We discuss being different and accepting people the way that they are. Even with the kinders.’
Another wrote: ‘Just ordered a couple copies to put in my Little Free Library here in Texas.’
Scott Stuart (pictured) says some school systems in the US are more concerned about politics than educating students
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