past principals of washington township middle / high school

“I love teaching, and I love teaching elementary,” he said.

(Florida’s law, passed in 2022, initially applied to K-3 the state board of education extended it in April to all grades.) If that happens, he’s not sure what he’ll do, Gutmann said with tears in his eyes. But he’s scared that the state will expand the law to include all grades, like Florida did. He left his elementary school and will be teaching 7th and 8th grade in the fall within the same district. “I didn’t want to get to the point next year where I’m put in a position where I either feel like I can’t live authentically, or I can’t do some teaching around different family structures,” Gutmann said, adding that he feels as if his family has been “criminalized.” But he wants to be able to display his wedding picture or talk about his husband to students, and intervene when students use the term “gay” as a derogatory insult-and he wasn’t sure if any of that would be permissible under the new law. “I don’t run around the school with a pride flag or whatnot,” he said. Experts have said that state-level restrictions on instruction often lead to a chilling effect, where educators fearing backlash or retribution end up censoring themselves even more than the laws require.ĭan Gutmann has taught elementary special education in Des Moines, Iowa, for seven years, but when the state passed a law in May that bans instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity before the 7th grade level, Gutmann told his husband that he could no longer teach under those conditions. Since the laws are so new, educators are unsure of what enforcement will look like, she said.

Past principals of washington township middle / high school