A Florida teacher has resigned after a disagreement with the administration of his school after he created a safe space for students. English Language Arts teacher
Xavier Grullon took to facebook to explain what happened.
It is with great regret to inform you, my community, that I will not be teaching in the 20-21 school year. After intense meeting with administration about my classroom and the morals that I have built for it. The conference in short was about me promoting “sexuality” in the classroom through my posters. The principle then goes on and told me that she “knew” about my “lifestyle” when she hired me and didn’t have a problem with it, however she does not agree with it. \
She told me that high school students are impressionable and they she will not have someone telling them that being gay is acceptable in her program. Even after telling me that they have a substantial amount of queer students in their school. I tried to explain her how safe spaces work and that I was not promoting anything except students learning and acknowledging their identities to promote the celebration of differences. She then on told me that “although we are a public school it is ran like a Christian school” and that I can teach the students the curriculum provided word for word from the book or that maybe I wasn’t the best fit for the program. I resigned.
I will never assimilate to anything that oppresses black and queer people. I cannot support a school that would rather repress their students and shame them instead of teaching them about who they are. Thank you to everyone who donated to my class fund. All the supplies were left for the teachers to provide for their students. Thank you all the love, I am forever honored and grateful.
We wish him the best in whatever path he chooses to take next. We know there are school that would be happy to have him!
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