Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast
A teacher filed a lawsuit against a Texas school district on Tuesday, saying she was suspended in September after a parent claimed she was promoting a “homosexual agenda” during Get to Know Your Teacher Day. Eight months ago, a Mansfield Independent School District official told Stacy Bailey “you can’t promote your lifestyle in the classroom” after she showed her students a photo of her “future wife,” according to court documents. Parents also allegedly accused the art teacher of showing “sexually inappropriate images” in class. Bailey says she “did no such thing.” She was asked to resign in October by administrators but refused. The two-time Teacher of the Year at Charlotte Anderson Elementary School was then transferred to a secondary school after MISD renewed her contract in April, according to the court documents. School administrators are “sending the message that it believed LGBT teachers were not acceptable to teach elementary students,” her attorney, Jason Smith, said. Bailey is calling on the school district to include sexual orientation and gender-identity language in its anti-discrimination policy. Concerns over Bailey were not about “her request to have our nondiscrimination policies reviewed and/or revised with regard to LBTQ rights,” Mansfield school districts said in a statement. The teacher is suing for emotional damages and wants to be reinstated.