Shawnee Mission teacher sues district over 'gender ideology' and diversity policies

[pstokely]

Source: Johnson County Post

Jennifer Caedran Sullivan has filed suit in U.S. District Court of Kansas alleging administrators’ response to her outspoken opposition to “gender ideology” and “anti-white ideology” was an infringement of those rights.

The suit seeks unspecified damages and several injunctions claiming she’s suffered emotional distress and mental anguish and that her career has been “irreparably damaged” by the district’s response.

Administrators violated her rights by requiring her to use words “endorsing and supporting the fiction that boys can become girls and girls can become boys, or that one can disavow his or her sex because one feels like it,” according to the 102-page suit.

In addition to filing the lawsuit in late October, Sullivan also published an op-ed column on Fox News’ website detailing her reasons for bringing the suit.

Read more: https://www.kcur.org/education/2024-11-18/shawnee-mission-teacher-sues-district-over-gender-ideology-and-diversity-policies

[SharonClark]

2. Transphobe wants to put her

Prejudices over the welfare of the students. I hate these people.

[lapfog_1]

3. I am a bit sad but not surprised

My brother graduated from SM North... I graduated from SM Northwest. That part of Kansas ( Johnson county ) is one of the more affluent counties in the Midwest, possibly in the entire nation ( but we grew up in a poor area ). It is also home to some very right wing nutjobs. Kansas used to be a "country club republican" sort of state with a lot of middle of the road republicans and middle of the road democrats. My feeling is that it is now much more polarized than it was, and is now also way more MAGA than I would have ever guessed. Yes, occasionally Democrats win elections there, but there is also a lot of "brain drain" as people who have skills move to other areas of the country where you find either more options for entertainment or employment or both.

I hope she loses the lawsuit and has to pay all legal fees... but my money is on she wins or there is a settlement that rewards her bigotry.

[liberalgeek]

5. Things have changed in Johnson County

I'm not sure when you graduated from SM North, but I graduated from SM West in the mid 90's, and have stayed and raised my family here. Johnson County as a whole is a lot more blue than it was then. The County Commission just lost one of it's remaining 2 RWNJ's from the election in November. Harris/Walz won JoCo with 183451 votes compared to 154247 for the R ticket. Sharice Davids has won the 3rd congressional district with larger margins each election. The R's in JoCo are getting more and more extreme and also have a zero tolerance policy for not toeing the party line. We're definitely a big-tent party here that has seen a lot of defections of moderate R's come over to the party because MAGA has completely taken over. There were also a lot of close races that the Democratic challengers lost by less than 5-8 percentage points, which was nearly unheard of 8 years ago. The county Democratic party also put up a candidate for almost every state legislature/senate seat this year. That has definitely changed since the 90's/early 00's, and I'm glad to see them trying to fight for every seat they can get.

[rustysgurl]

6. I don't know if you still live in JoCo

but I've lived here for almost 25 years. Johnson County is one of few counties in Kansas that leans blue. More than a few Democrats win here "occasionally". Sharice Davids (a Native American, lesbian woman is our Congresswoman). We elected a Democrat Sheriff for the first time in decades this year. Many local city, county and school elections also elected Democrat candidates. The Democratic Party is alive and doing very well here in Johnson County. Are there die-hard Republicans here? You bet, and this "educator" is obviously one of them. Johnson County is affluent, but that does not necessarily translate to Republican.

[slightlv]

8. I moved away quite a few years ago...

now live in LV. When I was there, tho, the divide between the haves and have-nots was deep. We got all kinds at the library on 83rd St, but you could see the self-shuffling even in there. And certain persons were to be shunned should they come close to the public computers. We knew there were people at the library who came in to escape the weather, etc. And many of us low-level employees were sympathetic. But the library PTB? I dunno... they had to act a certain way to maintain their position, IMO. The one thing I did find that gave mea bit of heart was the head of the library at the time had the saying "Don't let the bastards get you down" written in Latin on a plaque on her desk.

I lived in an apartment off 83rd street... all of us were of the lower and middle class. May have given me a mindset that's not necessarily true. But then I keep thinking of that Olathe councilwoman (?) who was championing women NOT having the right to vote, and this was at least a decade ago.

Now that I'm older, I'm glad I moved to a smaller city. We've got the dyed in the wool R's around here; lots of retired officer money, to be sure. But those times when I drive into the city to head to MicroCenter or somewhere, I'm just gobsmacked by how much Overland Park has changed and grown. 95th street just seems like everything is built on top of everything else. At my age now, it just seems scary.

[slightlv]

7. lapfog,

I fear you're right in that they'll grant her the win. I thought it was bad when I moved back here decades ago and they were still arguing about "busing." But it's all been downhill since then. If I had the money, I'd move in a heartbeat. My dad, for whom I returned to help with his medical condition, is now long gone. Mom is in a memory home. My sis is dying to retire and move away from here. We both want to move to the Northwest. She may actually make it someday... two good salaries and still good skills... she's a teacher. They've actually been able to save some money towards retirement; something I was never really able to do. But day by day, we're more depressed living here. I worked at the Central Resource Library in Lenexa. I lived in Lenexa, but not the rich side of the city. More the apartments on the outskirts. We had United Way in each year for a money drive. It's amazing the number of people in JoCo who aren't rich, but who are all but invisible.

[Duncan Grant]

4. It's in retaliation to DEI. She's a white supremacist. Found a 2023 interview...

Sullivan said SMSD is fostering a “toxic environment and requiring employees to attend Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) training and workshops centered around Critical Race Theory, including Black Lives Matter in the Classroom and Social Justice in the Classroom (using teachers’ ‘white privilege,’ ‘white supremacy’ and ‘de-colonizing our classrooms’ propaganda).

“There is repeated white shaming and a preoccupation with white people as the ‘oppressor,’ including staff field trips with a focus on ‘systemic racism.’ The white saviorism and virtue-signaling at DEI meetings is so condescending that many minorities and other staff members have stopped attending.”

Sullivan said teachers were informed at a staff meeting in April (and on many other occasion) they should refer to students “by their preferred names and pronouns during the school day, but hide from the parents the fact that their minor children are transitioning at school. The district conceals the transgender policies from the public and will not release the DEI presentations we are compelled to watch.”…

“There is a strong anti-capitalism, anti-conservatism, and anti-American bias in the DEI curriculum, with an emphasis on ‘white fragility’ and ‘how to be antiracist,'” Sullivan wrote. “I have been in workshops where teachers were discussing how to incorporate The 1619 Project into their English curriculum and how to use Orwell’s book 1984 in class as propaganda against those of one political party.”

The source is a right-wing rag funded by the Herzog Foundation.