A teacher in Ontario was accused of using "transphobic" language after she raised concerns over some books in the library that spoke of transgender ideologies. The teacher, Carolyn Burjoski was then placed on leave by the Waterloo Region District School Board after last Monday's board meeting, during which she told the board of her concerns about the books.
Burjoski said she felt "bullied, slandered and abused" after she argued with the school board that some books in the library were inappropriate for kindergartners through sixth-grade students, the Christian Post reported. Board chair Scott Piatkowski fired back by cutting short Burjoski's presentation, in which she argued that the books made medical transition appear "simple" and "cool."
The school board, which leads up to 100 schools in the region, then narrowly voted 5 to 4 to back Piatkowski's decision. Burjoski the following day took to Twitter to post a video, in which she recounted how her school's human resources informed her that she was "immediately assigned to home, pending a formal investigation and banned from contacting my colleagues and students."
Burjoski said in the video that the development was "particularly upsetting" for her because "I love my students, and I have not seen them since December." The teacher added, "When my students excitedly returned to school on Tuesday - the first day of in-class learning after yet another lockdown - their teacher was not there, and they did not know why. I have been silenced and punished."
According to the National Post, board member Mike Ramsay defended Burjoski, blasting the board's decision and saying that he has never seen a teacher being silenced this way before. Ramsay, who served as chair three times, argued, "It's censoring presentations that the chair doesn't agree with."
"If we're going to just take one point of view and say that's sufficient, that's wrong on so many fronts," Ramsay lamented, saying that as decision makers, the board must "make informed decisions."
Burjoski, who has been a teacher of English as a second language for 20 years, appeared as a one-person "delegation" during the board meeting to raise concerns over books like "Rick" by Alex Gina and "The Other Boy" by M.G. Hennessey, a book that depicts a meeting between a girl and a doctor who explained that testosterone treatments would prevent her from having children once she transitions into a boy. The girl responded with, "It's cool."
But Piatkowski argued that she was "speaking about transgender people in a way that was disrespectful, that would cause them to be attacked and I really needed to ensure it did not continue."
Piatkowski added that he was "quite confident it was the right decision." The Ontario teacher denied being a "transphobic person," adding that it was "crazy that just because you ask a question, the first thing people do is call you that."
"We're not having those conversations in our culture because, look what happened to me," Burjoski lamented. "The message is clear: no dissent is allowed."
