After 34 years in the classroom, California teacher Sean Redmond was fired for taking a stand for his students.
Garden Grove Unified School District began directing teachers to administer quizzes that asked students about their religions, sexual orientations, and pronouns. Worse, the district told teachers to keep the information pertaining to students’ gender identity from parents, even when parents requested the information.
Redmond—a Christian conservative—filed a formal complaint, advocating for the rights of students, parents, and teachers, and arguing that quizzing students about their moral and religious beliefs violated their constitutional rights.
The complaint followed the example that Redmond set in the classroom, where he taught students to think critically instead of simply accepting agenda-influenced information. Some members of the Garden Grove administration claimed that Redmond was indoctrinating students with a “right-wing agenda”; when Redmond pushed back, claiming that students must know how to think critically and that parents must be involved, he was fired for misconduct.
Despite the backlash Redmond faced, he continued to stand strong, sharing on his personal Instagram page, “This fight is bigger than my firing. It is about parental rights and the welfare of children and the community. The board chose to be elected, public servants. They must address the issues.”
Students and community members rallied around Redmond, attending a July school board meeting to speak out against his being fired. Despite the support from the community, the school board moved forward with Redmond’s termination in an effort to silence any questioning of its woke agenda.
Redmond is not the first teacher to receive backlash for standing up for the rights of students and parents, and unfortunately, he won’t be the last. Jessica Tapia, a physical education teacher in nearby Jurupa Unified School District, was fired earlier in the year for refusing to withhold information from parents or use preferred pronouns to address her students.
Tapia took to Instagram to stand in support of Redmond, writing, “…Teachers like Sean are the VERY teachers we need in our schools, but he is the very kind of teacher that they want out.”
