Brevard County Schools will not renew the teaching contract of an educator who called a student by their preferred name rather than the name they were assigned at birth.
Melissa Calhoun, who was a teacher at Satellite High School, won't have her contract renewed after using a student’s preferred name without parental permission.
Her ten-month contract was up for renewal in May.
According to her LinkedIn, Calhoun was a teacher in the Brevard County school district for twelve years and got her teaching degree at the University of Central Florida.
In a statement regarding Calhoun’s dismissal, the district wrote, it "supports parents’ rights to be the primary decision-makers in their children’s lives, and Florida law affirms their right to be informed.”
District spokesperson Janet Murnaghan said that the district conducted an internal investigation into Calhoun and her use of the child’s preferred name. It was during the investigation that Calhoun admitted to using the child’s preferred name.
Calhoun did not respond to Central Florida Public Media’s request for comment.
Under the Parental Rights in Education law, which was expanded in 2023, Florida teachers who use a student’s preferred name or pronouns without parental permission can be fired and lose their certification.
Supporters of this law, including Governor Ron DeSantis, said it protects a parent’s right to know if a child is changing their name or pronouns, sometimes to align with gender identity or sexuality.
Speaking at the National Rental Home Council conference in Orlando on Wednesday, DeSantis asked, “is it appropriate for these young kids in schools to be having things like gender ideology taught to them, where they're taught that they may have been born in the wrong body, their gender is a choice? Look, as a parent of young kids, I don't want that. I want the kids to have a normal education.”
But educational experts warn that the law could target teachers in a state that already has a teacher shortage, leading to teachers getting pink slipped.
Other teachers left the state when the expanded law was first applied two years ago.
A Change.org petition asking to reinstate Calhoun has already garnered more than 5,000 signatures since it was posted late Tuesday night.
On that petition Calhoun’s story is described in this way, “Ms. Calhoun is an embodiment of what proper education should be: inclusive, understanding, and respectful of individuality. Losing her would be a significant loss to the Satellite High School and Brevard County's education community.”
Hundreds of people have left comments of support.
Neither the governor’s office nor the Florida Department of Education responded to a request for comment on this story.
