EducationPolitics

‘Transmasculine’ teacher gets $60K after co-workers refuse to call her ‘they’

Soell
Screengrab: Oregonian

Leo Soell, a fifth-grade “transmasculine” teacher at an Oregon elementary school, demands to be called “they” by co-workers instead of “he” or “she.”  But after preparing to file an official complaint, the Daily Caller reported Monday, citing the Oregonian, the school cut a deal to pay her $60,000 to compensate her for “emotional distress.”

The Daily Caller added:

According to The Oregonian, Leo Soell was born a woman, but now prefers to identify as “transmasculine” and “genderqueer,” meaning she does not consider herself to be male or female. After getting breast cancer in late 2014, she had her breasts amputated to create a more masculine appearance and changed her name to Leo. Once she returned from medical school in May, 2015, Soell was fully public with her gender-neutral identity.

Once she returned to work, Soell claims she fell victim to relentless harassment from her co-workers. She says employees persisted in calling her hurtful terms like “Miss Soell,” “lady,” and “she.” If a student asked Soell’s sex, she says she was ordered to reply it was a private matter not suitable for discussion at school.

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According to Soell, one teacher yelled at her in the hallway that her gender choice was offensive to God, and other teachers allegedly conspired to use the only gender-neutral restroom forcing her to wait a half-hour or more to use it.

The school conducted an investigation and found no evidence of harassment.  Nevertheless, they agreed to pay her $60,000, no doubt wanting to avoid a complaint to the state.

“I actually feel safe now,” Soell said after the settlement. “There will always be people who push the boundaries, but I’m not worried about them anymore because I know that my district supports me.”

Here’s video, courtesy of the Oregonian:

The school, Blake Neff said, also agreed to implement a slew of new policies to make the district more transgender-friendly.

“Among other things,” Neff said, “the new policy will require all teachers to refer to their co-workers by their preferred names and pronouns, and it will also ensure transgender employees and students have their bathroom needs met. Teachers who refuse to comply with the pronoun command may be fired, the school district warns.”

Scary…  What’s next?

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Joe Newby

A 10-year veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, Joe ran for a city council position in Riverside, Calif., in 1991 and managed successful campaigns for the Idaho state legislature. Co-author of "Banned: How Facebook enables militant Islamic jihad," Joe wrote for Examiner.com from 2010 until it closed in 2016 and his work has been published at Newsbusters, Spokane Faith and Values and other sites. He now runs the Conservative Firing Line.

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