(FOX NEWS) – A Georgia fifth-grade public school teacher is attempting to save her job in a termination hearing that concluded Friday after she was fired earlier this year for reading her students a book on gender identity the district says is prohibited in class instruction under state law.
Due West Elementary teacher Katie Rinderle, who has been on leave for more than a month after teaching for 10 years, was fired in March for reading the book “My Shadow Is Purple,” which features a nonbinary character and challenges the concept that there are only two genders.
“When I saw the book, at the book fair, I read it. I thought it was a wonderful book,” Rinderle said on the stand during the two-day hearing. Rinderle said her students chose the book out of several options she gave them.
