It’s been over a year and a half since Katie Rinderle, a fifth-grade gifted teacher at Due West Elementary in Cobb County, Georgia, first laid eyes on “My Shadow is Purple,” a children’s book by Australian author Scott Stuart, at her school’s Scholastic Book Fair. Since then, the events that followed Rinderle’s decision to present Stuart’s book to her students—celebrated for its emphasis on inclusivity and moving beyond the gender binary—among several others for the young scholars to choose from for her to read has created a firestorm of controversy that Rinderle never expected.
“It completely flipped my world upside down,” Rinderle says, who was given a choice to resign or face termination by the Cobb County School District for violating the district policies after a complaint by a Cobb County middle school teacher – and mother of one of Rinderle’s fifth-grade students triggered an investigation. Rinderle refused to resign and was issued her official notice of termination by the district on June 6, 2023.
A teacher in the Cobb County School District for a decade, Rinderle tells GLAAD she is more concerned with how the district’s decision has impacted students, especially those who saw themselves represented in Stuart’s book, and less about how she’s been personally affected.
“Focusing on myself is something I really haven’t done,” Rinderle says. “Yes, I lost my job in all of this, which was a huge change for me. But I think that it is so much bigger than me.”
Not all parents of Rinderle’s students reacted negatively to her reading “My Shadow is Purple.”
“I feel that these types of conversations are necessary to have, and the end result would hopefully lead to less cases of bullying in our schools,” one parent said in an email reviewed by The Southern Poverty Law Center, who is representing Rinderle and another Georgia teacher in a federal lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia on Rinderle’s behalf against the school district and its officials.
According to The Southern Poverty Law Center, Rinderle is the first known public school teacher to be fired under Georgia’s trio of censorship laws passed in 2022. The laws include the Protect Students’ Rights Act, commonly known as the “divisive concepts” law; a “Parents’ Bill of Rights;” and one known as the “Harmful to Minors law,” which allows for the removal or restriction of materials parents deem “pornographic” or otherwise harmful. Together, the laws censor class discussion, give parents the right to refuse instruction they disagree with, and ban “offensive” reading materials from school libraries.
Par for the course in the district
While Rinderle has been impacted by the district’s decision to terminate her employment, she says LGBTQ students in Cobb County are also receiving a message from school officials that “they don’t belong there, that they are othered, and that their identities have been negated,” which she maintains is “par for the course in the district.”
“It is a book about inclusivity, it’s a book about being true to yourself and supporting one another,” Rinderle tells GLAAD.
“They do not listen to students, and they do not listen to all parents,” she said. “And we see that at every school board meeting. We see which parents they are ignoring, which students continuously are saying, ‘Hey, I’m being harmed in school.'”
Still, Rinderele points out that the harmful ideology and rhetoric that contributed to her termination are not representative of the majority of parents but a loud minority of extremists.
“I think that the majority of people see the book for exactly what it is,” she said. “The bigoted, racist remarks of a small, loud minority should not determine what is taught in our public schools.”
And according to Rinderle, members of the executive cabinet of the school district are tied to known extremist groups in Cobb County. Research by The Southern Poverty Law Center and local reporting supports Rinderle’s claim.
In December, the Cobb County Courier exposed links between three of [Cobb County School District Superintendent] [Chris] Ragsdale’s top administrators and right-wing extremist Gary DeMar, president of American Vision, an anti-LGBTQ+ hate group based in the small Cobb County town of Powder Springs. The group espouses the death penalty for LGBTQ people. GLAAD contacted Cobb County School District Superintendent Chris Ragsdale for comment. He did not respond by press time.
“We’ve had teachers who have resigned in protest for the ban on The 1619 Project before [HB] 1084 was passed, “Rinderle says.
Jennifer Susko, an anti-racism advocate, co-founder of the Cobb Community Care Coalition, and an eight-year district school counselor, was the employee who resigned in protest in 2021 after the school board’s decision to ban The 1619 Project along with historically accurate discussions about race.
“Students have been speaking out at the school board for experiencing racism, homophobia, transphobia, Islamophobia, and anti-semitism at our school for years and have been repeatedly ignored,” Rinderle says.
“They don’t feel like they have a voice in the school district,” she said. “They don’t feel safe or welcome. It also makes them feel like there’s no system in place to help educate their peers to make them feel safe and welcome.”
Rinderle further illustrated the climate in Cobb County fostered by Ragsdale and other administrators, which made it possible for her termination and, even worse, continues to make it possible for LGBTQ students to be subjected to bullying and harassment.
“It comes from a district who has removed [the student-led school climate program] “No Place For Hate,” and has historically ignored students when they speak out on bullying and anti-racism in our district. Also, [have ignored] students speaking out about being bullied at school for being queer. So, knowing the background of Cobb County School District is really important in this context.”
On August 17, 2023, the Cobb County School Board voted 4-3 along partisan lines to uphold the superintendent’s recommendation for Rinderle’s termination. In February, the state board voted unanimously to affirm the Cobb County School Board’s decision without discussing it, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
For now, Rinderle’s legal team at The Southern Poverty Law Center is working towards vindication for the ousted Georgia teacher based on their legal view as a violation of her rights to fair notice and equal protection under the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. And while Rinderle anticipates a ruling in her favor, her focus remains on the students she was forced to leave behind.
“I’m very proud of the students who continuously show up at school board meetings to make their voices heard and share those experiences because they’re very real,” Rinderle said. “All of this together, hopefully, will bring about not only change within Cobb County but across our state and throughout the nation.”