Rosie Sandri says her ‘hands were tied’ after slew of criticism, including death threats, led to her resignation

A trans teacher at a Texas high school has resigned after becoming the target of conservative backlash and online attacks.

Rosie Sandri came out as a trans woman about seven months ago. Her colleagues at Red Oak high school and the Red Oak independent school district were very supportive, she recalled to NBC News.

Sandri posted videos speaking about her life as a trans woman and teacher on TikTok. Last week, the rightwing social media account Libs of TikTok posted one of Sandri’s TikTok videos in which she talks about “gender euphoria”.

“They call me ma’am. They call me miss. They use my correct pronouns and know my correct name, and it is incredibly affirming,” she said in the TikTok video describing her positive experiences with her students.

In the post, Libs of TikTok deadnamed and also misgendered her.

  • irotsoma@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    12·
    18 hours ago

    The title is a little misleading. She didn’t resign because of the death threats against her. She resigned because the school’s state representative forced them to fire her, but they had no cause, so they had to pressure her to resign to protect the students from defunding or physical attacks on the school.

    • Pete Hahnloser@beehaw.orgOPEnglish
      3·
      17 hours ago

      Hed is accurate. You seem to be reading “after” as “because of.” Very different meanings, which one learns early on in journalism, because the latter opens you up to a libel suit.

      I’ve been forced into resigning given the other option being getting fired. We’re seeing this all over the place at the federal level; your understanding of this set of events suggests a lack of familiarity with bureaucracy run by people who have ideological as opposed to civic goals.

      Would you argue against 9/11 happening after the Second Punic War? Would that statement imply causation or just temporal facts?

      • irotsoma@lemmy.blahaj.zone
        2·
        17 hours ago

        But common language generally has effect followed by cause if there is a joining preposition between them. Just because a journalist isn’t confused by it doesn’t mean an average person wouldn’t be. Words are cheap these days, it’s not like the days of print where every word cost money. Journalism doesn’t have to be terse at the expense of accuracy anymore. Plus it’s really easy to clarify by saying “forced to resign”, so just 2 words.

        As for whether it’s common to force people to resign when you can’t fire them or not is irrelevant. This is firing or forcing to resign over who they are. If it was a cis-woman being fired/forced to resign for being a woman instead of a man, or a black person being forced to resign explicitly for not being white, would it have been allowed to happen? The method is irrelevant. It’s not as if it was for performance related issues or even a political disagreement. This is for who she is at a basic level.

        • Pete Hahnloser@beehaw.orgOPEnglish
          1·
          17 hours ago

          No argument to your second point.

          “Forced to resign” is inaccurate, though. That was one of her options; I’d call it a dilemma, but one option was clearly better than the other, so that’s inapplicable. You seem to have a reversed notion of accuracy, and while I could go on about media literacy at length, this is not the venue.

          • irotsoma@lemmy.blahaj.zone
            1·
            11 hours ago

            The other option was to risk being attacked at work along with all the children, many if whom would likely be killed or injured along with her. That’s not an “option”. That’s like saying you have the option to either work so you can eat, or never work again, or eat, for the rest of your life. Sure it’s an option. But not a viable one. She only got to choose how she would be forced out. Leave gracefully, or leave with the blood of children on her conscience. Not that it would be her fault, but if she survived, they surely would make it out to be her fault for not leaving. The threats to her life aren’t going to stop. It’s just now the children aren’t going to be used as bloody pawns.

            • Pete Hahnloser@beehaw.orgOPEnglish
              1·
              11 hours ago

              Not entirely sure what you’re on about. When the options are “resign or be fired,” there’s no timeline for the sorts of scenarios you’re inventing. Either choice, today’s your last day.

              • irotsoma@lemmy.blahaj.zone
                1·
                3 hours ago

                There was no “be fired” option. They couldn’t fire her for her gender, but they had to get rid of her or face possible retaliation from the representative or a school shooting or other attack from extremists.

        • longjohnjohnson@lemmy.ml
          1·
          2 hours ago

          There’s a lot more liberals there than you’d think, but they assume they’re outnumbered by conservatives.

          They’re wrong, but that’s how voter suppression works

            • Pete Hahnloser@beehaw.orgOPEnglish
              4·
              17 hours ago

              Oh, I’m perfectly safe as a White cismale; it’s the environment in all meanings of the word. I’ll hit a decade if I’m still here in May, and I don’t want to do so. I’ll be going to a regional burn at the end of April that I think is what’s keeping me here. I of course need a couple of other miracles, but that’s what burns are for.