The Texas transgender teacher resigned on Monday less than a week after state lawmakers called on her to be fired on social media videos.
“I’m heartbroken,” said Rosie Sandri, who taught sophomore English for three years at Red Oak High School, just south of the Dallas Metro area. She said she has wanted to be a teacher since she was five years old. “When I signed that resignation, I felt my dream was being taken away from me.
Sandri, 33, came out as a trans woman about seven months ago, and said her colleagues at the school and Red Oak Independent School District were extremely supportive. She said she never stood up in front of class and came out and instead started dressing differently. When the student noticed and asked if he would call her by another name or use another pronoun, she told them that they could call her “anything that they are comfortable with.”
She told them that she preferred pronouns, but added, “If you disagree with it, or if you feel uncomfortable with it, you will not hurt my feelings by calling me what you want.”
After she came out, Sandri began sharing videos of her experiences as a teacher with a trans woman in Tiktok. She said she filmed some of the videos in the classroom after school time. She had about 150 followers before last week.
Last Wednesday, Libs, Tiktok’s social media account, has millions of followers and singles, LGBTQ people and their employers, with singles to promote inclusion.
“In school today, I’m surrounded by kids. I teach second graders. I have 15-16-year-olds who are fully on board. “They call me ‘Maam’. They call me a “mistake.” They use my correct pronouns and know my correct name, and it is incredibly positive. ”
In a post about Sandri, Tiktok’s Libs used her previous legal name. This is called “Deadnaming,” widely considered to be aggressive and aggressive among the trans community, and misunderstood her and asked, “Do you feel comfortable with this person who teaches your child?” The account also shared a screenshot of one of Sandri’s posts about various types of LGBTQ pride flags, saying it was “pushing” her public Tiktok content that students can follow her.
Brian Harrison, a state legislator representing Red Oak, where the school is located, shared Libs in Tiktok’s post about X, demanding that Sandri be “quickly fired.”
“The public schools (and the property taxes that fund them) are for education… not indoctrination of the left!” Harrison said.
Chaya Raichik, a far-right activist who runs Libs on her Tiktok account, did not reply to requests for comment.
“We are proud to bring this victory to protect Texas students,” Harrison said.
“Public schools are for education, not indoctrination,” he said in an email statement. “Teachers who obtain ‘gender euphoria’ from minor students and teach that boys can become girls should be fired immediately. ”
Sandri said she never taught students about transition, and Harrison did not reply to requests for additional comment on whether she believes trans educators are teaching students about transition by being openly transgender.
Sandri said she got sick last Wednesday when Libs in Tiktok first shared the video, but she quickly got sick when she began to be threatened and harassed to her personal and school email accounts and social media.
On the same day, she called the Red Oak Independent School District Human Resources Department and the assistant secretary told her that the school was also threatened. She said the assistant superintendent told her that the school would be on administrative leave for two days while the investigation was underway.
On Monday, she said she came to an agreement with the school to resign. She said she could not discuss the details of the conversation as part of the contract and the school did not tell her that she had violated any policy.
In an email sent to school staff on Monday and obtained by NBC News, the district’s chief communications officer, Beth Trimble, reminded educators of the district’s social media policy.
“Your freedom of speech has no consequences if it disrupts your ability to do your job,” the email said. We also instructed staff to refrain from posting during school or working hours.
In an email to NBC News, Trimble said the messages sent to staff on Monday had nothing to do with Sandri’s resignation. She did not answer questions about whether Sandri violated district policies, whether Sandri violated accounts of events, or whether the school asked Sandri to resign.
“I decided yesterday that my best option would be to resign for my own safety and the safety of the school,” Sandri said, adding that she had no ill will towards the school or the district.
“I was out for seven months (as a transgender person). None of my parents, staff, administrators, no one had any issues,” she said. “I wasn’t causing any confusion. It wasn’t the people in the school or the community that were causing the problem. They were people outside.”
Tiktok’s Libs has repeatedly posted about teachers who share LGBTQ content on social media, and announce harassment against those teachers and their schools. Last year, a teacher in Oklahoma who played drugs outside of work resigned after Libs in Tiktok posted about him and called on him to fire him.
On Monday, March 31st, Sandri resigned, coincidentally, the Trans Day of Vision, an annual awareness day dedicated to celebrating trans achievements and acknowledging the violence and discrimination facing the community. It was Sandri’s first trans day in vision as a trans woman.
People who said the kids were in Sandri’s class commented on her post about her resignation, saying she supported her. One said Sandri was one of her son’s favorite teachers.
Sandri said she doesn’t know if she’ll be able to get another job as a teacher in Texas because of Harrison’s post and the public opinion she received. As a result, she said she is considering taking legal action against Tiktok live and those she said. Tiktok’s Libs posted about Sandri’s resignation, calling it a “big victory.”
“My message to Libs in Tiktok is, ‘You chose the wrong one,” said Sandri. “The whole community is standing behind me and they don’t care. I’m lucky to have the privilege that many trans people don’t have. So my message is, “I’m not just making this about me, I’ll help trans people and the LGBTQIA community.”
