South Dakota teens say they received letter from beloved teacher filled with anti-trans rhetoric
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Being a young person today is far from easy—students are navigating life amid the novel coronavirus pandemic, considering higher education at a time when it’s devastatingly expensive, and watching rents and the housing market skyrocket. While LGBTQ+ youth are certainly not the only students experiencing hardships, research shows they do face disproportionate levels of bullying and harassment from their peers and are more likely to leave high school without a diploma. They are also more likely to become homeless.
In an ideal world, schools would be a safe haven for young people. Unfortunately, thanks to Republican hate, we’ve seen lawmakers push heinous policies that seek to separate trans youth from their peers, be it based on bathroom access or participating in sports teams. Research has shown teachers feel uniquely ill-equipped to step in on behalf of LGBTQ+ youth when it comes to bullying, for example, but a recent story out of South Dakota paints a very clear picture of a teacher as the one doing the bullying. At the time of writing, at least one student has already been pulled from the school.
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As reported by local outlet the Watertown Public Opinion, four high school students received a letter from their German teacher, Calvin Hillesland, in which he told the students that he felt it was “wrong” and a “lie” to call them by their chosen names but stressed he supports and respects them. The students, who are all openly trans, were told by their teacher via the letter that their biology is “female” and that “every cell in your body is female, feminine” as a “biological truth.” Hillesland allegedly offered to send the students in question candy (as a “symbol of the sweetness” he hopes they’ll discover) as well as a DVD that can explain the “spiritual” as well as the “scientific facts.”
In a word: Yikes.
Students received the letter on Monday and protested on Tuesday. Now, students and parents are asking the Watertown School District to take action against the teacher.
In a statement sent to parents in the school district, officials confirmed the letter was given to four students while at school on Monday. The statement, sent over text message, confirms that the teacher tried to discuss the students’ gender identity.
“The Watertown School District does not support this sort of action,” the statement reads in part. “And we respect the rights of our students to be who they are. We want to provide a safe learning environment for all students. We continue to work through the situation and ask for your support as we handle it.”
The outlet met with Superintendent Jeff Danielsen, who told the paper that Hillesland is still teaching while administrators are investigating the situation. The superintendent told the outlet they became aware of the situation after school ended on Monday, and the investigation is not yet complete. The outlet reports that Hillesland’s teaching certificate is currently active.
Several students told the outlet that they saw Hillesland pass out the letter to the four students in question during lunch, where Hillesland serves as a monitor.
How are the affected students feeling? According to their parents, they’re feeling pretty betrayed by a teacher they were fond of. Parent Heather Hoffman, for example, told the outlet that her son Kai Price was one of the young people to receive a letter. Hoffman said Price is upset because Hillesland was one of his favorite teachers before this happened. For herself, Hoffman said she’s still in “disbelief” and said that this typed-up letter was a “premeditated attack.” She added that she doesn’t understand why he’s still teaching.
“I’m just a 14-year-old kid trying to get through life,” Price told local outlet KELO about the situation, who added lately they’ve been struggling to feel confident and that receiving a letter like this from a trusted person really affected them.
Ashley Bakke, another parent of an impacted student, said her child, Alex Bryant, texted a copy of the letter to her right after receiving it. Bryant says she reached out to the school’s counselor and went to the school the same day to speak to Brad Brandsrud, who serves as principal of the high school. But according to Bakke, she felt like was “talking with a politician” who was “dancing around the issue.” She left feeling like the principal was defending a friend instead of addressing the issue.
At this point, Bakke made the call to pull her son from the district immediately. Bakke added that for her child, too, Hillesland was formerly a favorite teacher.
LGBTQ+ outlet them reached out to Danielson for clarification on the DVD in reference and the superintendent said he had no knowledge of the DVD or the content it contained.
It cannot be overstated the sort of impact teachers, coaches, and other administrators can have on the life of young people. It is a baseline minimum expectation to have adults in the room be equipped to recognize and combat hatred and bullying, and it shouldn’t even be a question of whether or not such behavior or expression should be permitted from the mouths of those in charge themselves.
School staff need and deserve well-rounded education and training on these issues—plus more, in terms of things like ableism, disability rights, microaggressions, and so on—and they also need to be held accountable for the things they do and say. It’s always more than a matter of opinion or exercising poor judgment when dealing with impressionable young people, especially when those young people are also disproportionately at-risk for mental health issues like depression and suicidal ideation.