Christian Teacher Who Was Fired for Objecting to California School’s Transgender Policies Gets the Last Laugh

Most of the time, standing up to the woke mob has meant temporary, or even permanent, loss of one's career and income. But, occasionally, in attempting to push back against the insane policies of the woke institutions like American public schools, those institutions have been forced to make restitution for their unjust actions. This time, those unjust actions, as reported in the Los Angeles Times , were firing high school physical education teacher Jessica Tapia from her position at Jurupa Valley High School in January 2023. According to Tapia in her wrongful termination lawsuit, she was fired for refusing to follow Jurupa Unified School District's directions for accommodating transgender and "gender non-conforming" students. Following the mandates of California's controversial anti-discrimination laws, the school decreed that teachers must use students' "preferred pronouns," allow them to use the locker rooms and bathrooms that aligned with their "gender identity," and could not inform parents of a student's changed gender identity, if that was what the student wanted. Speaking with Fox News , Tapia said the whole debacle began in September of 2022, when students found and complained about her social media account, where she was outspoken about her conservative and Christian beliefs , though she never discussed her beliefs in class. Tapia then said that, after getting slapped with a "Notice of Unprofessional Conduct," she went back and forth with the school board until her "third and final meeting in January 2023 " with the school district over the religious accommodation she had sought. A Riverside County school district has agreed to pay $360,000 to settle a lawsuit from a former teacher who was fired last year after refusing to adhere to policies regarding transgender or gender-nonconforming students, citing her Christian beliefs.

Jessica Tapia, who taught… pic.twitter.com/RHuTxwh7m8 — Mike Netter (@nettermike) May 15, 2024 In her own words, "I was questioned up and down on my Christian faith. And at the end of that, they decided from that that they could not accommodate my religious beliefs and were therefore firing me." Not only that but, according to Tapia, even though the district accused her of refusing to use a student's preferred pronouns, according to the Daily Mail, she was never actually faced with that situation. Instead, as she told Fox News Digital, it was all based on how she "would hypothetically handle a situation with a transgender student if I were to ever have one." Tapia partnered with attorney Julianne Fleischer of Advocates for Faith & Freedom, suing the school district for wrongful termination in May 2023. And now, Tapia and the district have come to a settlement, with the school district being ordered to pay Tapia $360,000. While the school district insisted that "This settlement is not a win for Ms. Tapia but is in compromise of a disputed claim," Tapia and Fleischer recognized the real significance of the settlement, Fleischer calling it an "incredible victory." Indeed, Fleischer went further than that, saying "Her religious beliefs were not accommodated when they could have been. We think it sends a strong message that there’s a price to pay when you ask a teacher to lie and withhold information." Exactly. Regardless of how the school district characterized those gender policies , they were encouraging teachers to lie to students about reality, and, potentially, lie to parents about what was going on in their children's lives. Tapia was right to take a stand, though it came at great personal cost. Giving in to such evil transgender policies is not only bad for kids, it's bad for the souls of those who go along with those lies. The real tragedy is that she even had to go through this ordeal in the first place. It showed that this sickening gender ideology perversion has become so commonplace in public schools that objecting to it is considered unacceptable. That’s a big problem. But, hopefully, it's a problem that more teachers like Tapia will be courageous enough to dispute, despite the personal risk.

This article appeared originally on The Western Journal .