California teacher Jessica Tapias was allegedly fired for refusing to hide her students’ gender identities from their parents because of her Christian beliefs.
In an interview with Fox News, Jessica said she is suing the Jurupa Unified School District in Riverside County for religious discrimination.
Jessica refused to abide by district policy, which prohibits school staff from sharing students’ gender identities with parents without first consulting the student because doing so would “violate California’s anti-discrimination law by increasing the student’s vulnerability to harassment and may violate the student’s right to privacy.”
Jessica said that she was expected to lie to parents about their children’s preferred pronouns, which she could not do because of her strong religious convictions. The school district sent her a notice informing her that she had been fired due to her religious beliefs.
“The fact of the matter [is] that as Christians, we can also be in the public sector. And at this point, I feel that I was told you need to choose one or the other. Do you want to be a public school teacher or do you want to continue practicing your Christian faith?” Jessica said.
“So I chose God. I chose to stick with my Christian faith. And because of that, they released me from employment because, in their words, ‘they could not accommodate my religious beliefs.’”
“I think parents have the right to know everything about their children. And I will not partake in withholding any information from a parent. I’m a parent myself and I would be very upset about that,” Jessica continued. “So this fight is not just for the sake of my job loss. This fight is for the protection of all children. This fight is for the preservation of parental rights.”
In an interview with Tucker Carlson, Jessica’s attorney Brad Dacus said the district’s decision was a “clear breach of public trust” and a “clear violation of her title seven rights.” “She was fired not because of the job she did. She was fired because of her religious beliefs,” [emphasis added] he told Carlson.
Hopefully, Jessica will win her lawsuit and be able to continue taking a stand for parental rights while teaching her students. California public schools need more Christian teachers like her who respect and speak up for the rights of parents to direct the education and mental health of their children.
Since her termination, hundreds of teachers have reached out to Jessica, telling her that they too stand for parental rights and are ready to “die on this hill.”
This is encouraging news. While stories of activist teachers indoctrinating children often take over the news, there are many teachers who are willing to stand up to their woke school districts and take a stand for parental rights, even if it costs them their job.
