Jenks Public Schools teacher alleges he was fired for displaying rainbow pride flags in his classroom

A instructor at Jenks Middle University alleges he was fired by the faculty district just after declining to remove rainbow satisfaction flags from his classroom.

Tyler Rathe, a seventh-grade science trainer, statements he was requested to remove quite a few versions of pride flags from the walls of his classroom, where by he states he hung flags symbolizing his students’ communities, identities and nations of origin.

Rathe suggests he was to start with positioned on administrative probation and then subsequently fired by administrators on Friday when he yet again refused to get rid of the flags.

“The administration’s termination of Mr. Rathe for failure to take away Delight flags from a 2SLGBTQ+ teacher’s classroom, unguided by any written coverage, is an inherently arbitrary and prejudiced assault on no cost speech and free association,” wrote Hanna Roberts, staff members lawyer at the American Civil Liberties Union of Oklahoma, in a Monday letter to Jenks Public Universities.

“Community universities simply cannot wantonly choose, on the whim of certain administrators, which teachers could screen selected decorations in their classroom and which instructors may possibly not,” Roberts stated. “It can not be the school’s plan that specific flags in specified lecture rooms are tolerable, whilst the exact same flags in another teacher’s classroom are inappropriate. The First Modification protects academics and students from these types of discriminatory censorship of particular viewpoints in the classroom.”

Roberts mentioned the ACLU has not been retained as Rathe’s legal counsel but that Rathe experienced authorized them to communicate on his behalf.

Arrived at by telephone Tuesday, Roberts mentioned the firing of Rathe, an open member of the 2SLGBTQ+ community, is “on pattern with what is actually happening in the Oklahoma legislature.”

“They passed a monthly bill very last 12 months that built it challenging for instructors to be capable to examine things like race and gender in the classroom, and I imagine that this is type of using it a single stage even further, so that not only are we generating confident that lecturers are unable to talk about these issues, they are unable to even stand for them selves or their individual identities or their students’ identities,” Roberts explained.

“It’s a amount of censorship that we have not found in this point out in a prolonged time,” she stated.

“Jenks Middle Faculty administrators’ arbitrary coverage to reduce assistance for 2SLGBTQ+ pupils serves only to harm an previously vulnerable population of younger people,” Roberts wrote in her letter to the district.

“For these college students having difficulties with their very own perception of belonging, a Delight flag may perhaps provide as a signal of hope in an otherwise not comfortable, stress inducing setting,” Roberts mentioned. “Erasing 2SLGBTQ+ imagery from the classroom will never erase 2SLGBTQ+ pupils or academics, but it will unquestionably ship a obvious concept to the Jenks Public Schools’ 2SLGBTQ+ community—you are not welcome your id is not valued listed here.”

In a assertion, Jenks Public Schools Communications Director Rob Loeber reported, “The latest allegations and rumors circulating on social media are not factually correct. Jenks Public Colleges would be in violation of confidentiality legal guidelines if employment data are disclosed. All personnel should have dignity and regard. Information of employment data will not be reviewed or shared by JPS in a public forum. Work steps taken by Jenks Community Colleges are never ever dependent on discriminatory factors. JPS adheres to non-discrimination procedures in all personnel matters.”