The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s education team is reflecting on some stories published in 2023. Here’s the latest in this series.
It’s been four months since a teacher in Cobb County was fired for reading a book that challenges gender roles to fifth graders.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution spoke to teachers, attorneys, parents, students and elected officials after the firing, and reported in August that Katie Rinderle’s firing did not end the controversy for metro Atlanta’s public schools.
In the following weeks, that prediction proved true.
Rinderle is asking the Georgia Board of Education to reverse her termination. The board is expected to decide in 2024.
Teachers and students have reported a stripping of books from classrooms for fear that they could be deemed controversial. The Cobb school district and Marietta City Schools removed two specific books from their libraries for containing sexually explicit content, officials said. Marietta took it a step further, directing the superintendent to review all of their books and voting this month to remove an additional 23.
Cobb schools intends to continue in the same vein in the coming year, when its lobbyists will ask lawmakers to establish a rating system for books like the ones that exist for movies and video games.
When Rinderle was fired, one of her attorneys said it was “just the beginning” in her case. But it was also the start of a debate about what content is “appropriate” in schools and who gets to decide — questions Georgia schools will continue to grapple with into the new year.
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