By Rebecca Gaunt

Community members in purple shirts that read “Ban Bias Not Books” showed up to push back against the “divisive concepts” law that has a Cobb teacher fighting for her job.

Katie Rinderle is facing a termination hearing in August over her decision to read “My Shadow Is Purple,” which she purchased at the school book fair, to her gifted students at Due West Elementary last March. Students wrote essays about their own shadows as a response. The book, by Australian author Scott Stuart, is described on the back cover as considering “gender beyond binary in a vibrant spectrum of color.” 

But it’s not just about one particular teacher, parents emphasized. It’s about making all students feel safe and welcome.

Beverly Wynne’s son is 33 now, but he is one of four kids she put through Due West over the course of 17 years. He was in third grade the first time a classmate called him a slur.

“He does not fit the standard mold of pink and blue,” she said. “A parent who sent an email in said it was disgusting and garbage. If you’re talking about that book, you’re talking about my kid.”

“Kids know at a very young age that they are different. They may not have the words for it. My son didn’t have the words for it,” she said.

Wynne was one of several speakers who addressed the school board about teaching inclusivity. Due to the rule that public commenters cannot address personnel matters, Wynne, unaware of the rule, was stopped from speaking at the work session and rewrote her comments for the evening meeting. She asked the board to aim for a district “where all students truly can succeed.”

Parent and PFLAG-Marietta president Erin Elwell told the board, “These are our children, not divisive concepts.”

Teacher Anna Clay told the board that all students deserve to be welcomed and represented in classroom literature. Parent Melissa Marten and CCAE President Jeff Hubbard both requested the reinstatement of the No Place For Hate program in the district.

Carly Lyon used her two minutes of speaking time to read Stuart’s book. Parent Micheal Garza read a poem in the style of “My Shadow is Purple” to reflect his own experiences in school. 

“My shadow in school was beige, the most timid of shades…you see I wasn’t born this shade, it was something acquired over time. But I know when it started. When the color of my skin had me accused of a crime,” he read.

Caryn Sonderman, a frequent speaker at board meetings, spoke in support of the district’s decision to terminate Rinderle at the work session. After being cautioned by the board attorney for veering into the Due West incident, she told the board, “When you take children and you confuse them and deceive them when God clearly made a man and a woman, a boy and a girl, and you are influencing children to think they can be other than what God made them to be: What are you building up? Are you building up the kingdom of God or the kingdom of Satan?”

Records obtained by the Courier show Rinderle had issues in the district prior to this lesson.

In an interview with the Courier on June 28, Rinderle said the district had not explained how the book violated Georgia law.

The district sent her a termination letter dated June 6. Under notice of charges, the letter states:

The content of the lesson was a controversial subject (gender identity/fluidity) that is not an appropriate school topic for ten and eleven-year-old students. The description of the book states that the “story considers gender beyond binary in a vibrant spectrum of color.” In the course of the lesson, you redirected students from referring to the character as a boy or he, and instead instructed the students they must refer to the character as “they/them.”

The letter goes on to say that she did not give parents the chance to opt their kids out and she did the lesson during mandatory math intervention. Rinderle denies not teaching the math lesson on fractions.

The principal also discovered plans for some students to complete LGBTQ+ advocacy projects without parents having been notified.

Two fifth-grade Target parents and one fourth-grade Target parent are listed as potential witnesses for having contacted the district with concerns.

District leaders also took issue with Rinderle’s refusal to acknowledge that “the book and lesson addressed gender identity” and her continued insistence that it was just about inclusivity.

In January 2022, the principal cautioned Rinderle after parents complained about her reading a book by gubernatorial candidate Stacy Abrams and tagged her on a social media post about it.

The records provided by CCSD also include communications from parents requesting their children be placed in other classrooms not taught by Rinderle. The parent communications are dated from 2022 and 2023.

Robert Rynearson led the investigation for CCSD. He and Principal Cissi Kale interviewed four students from Rinderle’s class. Three of them said she had told them to refer to the character as they/them. The fourth did not corroborate that, and said when the students assumed the main character was a boy, Rinderle responded asking how they know it’s a boy and stated that there are stereotypes about how boys and girls act.

During her interview, Rinderle said she told students to refer to the character as “they” or “the character” due to their confusion.

According to the investigation notes, one student said she was a good teacher, but he felt “she was pushing her agenda on the class.” Another student said he felt “weirded out” but thought Rinderle’s intention was to make all students feel included.

Rinderle told the investigator that she believed she had students who may be struggling with this issue. She also said she believed the book was approved since it was available at the book fair.

[Clarification: Rinderle contacted the Courier to clarify that it was the principal who made the assertion that “she had students who may be struggling with this issue,” an assertion Rinderle disagreed with]

The investigation findings state that “Rinderle violated District policy, specifically District Administrative Rule IKB-R: Controversial Issues and Administrative Rule IFAA-R: Instructional Resources Selection and Acquisition, as well as District Administrative Rule GAGC-R: Employee Ethics, which insures all certified staff adhere to the Professional Standards Commission’s Code of Ethics for Educators.”