Christian teacher fired for flouting schools trans policy celebrates Trump order targeting gender ideology

A Christian former teacher who was fired after refusing to comply with her school district’s transgender policies celebrated President Donald Trump’s executive order Wednesday targeting gender ideology in K-12 schools, calling the moment “surreal.”“I’m on cloud nine,” Jessica Tapia told Fox News Digital.“The very thing I was fired over —the tide has completely turned.Now, it’s the teacher who participates in socially transitioning a student that is going to be in trouble.

Not the other way around, like it’s been for the last several years,” she added.Trump’s executive order, entitled “Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling,” calls to eliminate federal funding or support “for illegal and discriminatory treatment and indoctrination in K-12 schools, including based on gender ideology and discriminatory equity ideology.”The order, which also targets critical race theory in schools, directs state and local attorneys general to work with the U.S.Attorney General to enforce the law and take action against teachers who violate the law by “sexually exploiting minors,” “unlawfully practicing medicine by offering diagnoses and treatment without the requisite license; or otherwise unlawfully facilitating the social transition of a minor student,” it says.Tapia, a former tenured physical education teacher in California’s Jurupa Unified School District, was fired in January 2023 after she refused to comply with the district’s gender policy, which, she says, directed teachers to hide children’s gender transition from their parents and use students’ preferred pronouns.Tapia explained that the district was initially made aware of her opposition to gender ideology by posts on her social media account discussing her faith and conservative beliefs.

After being pulled out of her classroom and into several meetings, the district said it could not grant her religious accomodation request and terminated her.She filed a lawsu...