Florida middle school teacher fired after assignment discussing students' sexual orientations

A pansexual art teacher at Trafalgar Middle School in Cape Coral, Florida, was fired in March for a pride flag assignment where students drew their sexual preferences.

The story broke through a local NBC outlet that conducted an interview with Mrs. Scott over the incident.

Scott says the assignment stemmed from students coming out to her about their sexualities. "A lot of the kids came up to me like 'oh, well, I’m non-binary' and a couple of kids said 'oh, well, I’m bi,' one kid said they’re gay."

Casey Scott had the students draw pride flags that represent whatever various sexualities represented them personally. She hung them up on the door of her classroom. It brought negative attention from other staff who strongly suggested she take them down.

"I went over to the recycling bin. I grabbed all their flags and all the kids were staring at me, and I crumbled their flags in front of them," Scott says.

The school system sent her home, then administrators informed her that they were releasing her from her contract. The reason given by the Lee County School District was that Mrs. Scott deviated from the required curriculum she was supposed to be teaching.

In the initial interview, Scott showed the reporter supportive social media posts from her former students that were upset she was let go. But officials for the school district countered that with complaints from parents about the artwork assignment.

Mrs. Scott also came out as pansexual to her students, but only some of them understood what that term even meant.

Kevin Daly of the Lee County Teachers Union told the local outlet it was legal to fire Casey Scott because she was in the middle of a probationary period. But he also said the incident raises a discussion about where boundaries are for educators.

The teacher in question was reportedly fired prior to the signing of Florida’s parental rights in education bill that bars such discussions in classrooms from pre-K through the third grade. However, it wouldn’t apply to Casey Scott since she taught middle schoolers.