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Teacher reveals how he was fired for refusing to call children who identified as trans by their preferred pronouns
A substitute teacher in a school district in Cheyenne, Wyoming, was fired from two different schools for refusing to call students who identified as trans by their chosen names.
While teaching a classroom at East High School in March, Gene Clemetson was approached by a student he described as a boy identifying as girl. This student asked him to be called by a different name than was on the attendance sheet.
'I said to him, very politely, I have to go by the name on the roster,' Clemetson recounted to Cowboy State Daily.
After they were not able to resolve the issue, the student left and returned with another teacher who told Clemetson that the student's parents approved of their child being called by this alternate name.
'Well that's great, but again, if I'm calling the attendance, if I'm calling the roll, I'm going by the names officially registered with the district,' Clemetson recalled saying.
Substitute teacher Gene Clemetson, pictured, has taken a stand against being forced to call students by their preferred names if they identify as transgender. It's led to his firing from two different schools in Wyoming
Sam Mirich, left, has been the principal of East High School for 26 years and has announced he'll be retiring. A new principal will take over in August
At that point, Principal Sam Mirich stepped in, telling Clemetson that he 'did not fit in at East High School' and that he 'was not welcome back.'
'And he proceeded to tell me he was going to report me to the administration and then had me escorted out of the building by his vice principal,' Clemetson said.
A similar incident occurred during the spring semester at another school in the same district, Triumph High School.
A student who Clemetson described as a 'young lady' again asked him to call her by a different name. The student became upset when he refused to do so.
The principal at Triumph also asked him to leave following the incident, telling him that human resources would be in touch with him.
Clemetson went on to meet with HR representatives for Laramie County School District #1, including Assistant Superintendent of HR Vicki Thompson and HR Director Jen Brownhill.
Pictured: Vicki Thompson, Assistant Superintendent of HR Laramie County School District #1
He provided a recording of that meeting to Cowboy State Daily, in which he and Thompson went back and forth about numerous complaints lodged against him from fellow teachers and students alike.
They detailed complaints from one student at East High School and three at Triumph High School who were upset that Clemetson didn't use their preferred names.
'Gene refused to use students' preferred names,' Thompson reads from his substitute teacher evaluation, in the recording. 'Three students were upset and went to their counselors or advisors.'
Clemetson fired back, asking if school policy requires subs to call students by their preferred names.
Thompson told him she'd get back to him on that.
Clemetson's personal politics on things outside of gender identity was also a topic of conversation during the meeting because of a complaint filed by a female teacher who he subbed for in March.
Clemetson is pictured in New York City with a hat that suggests the 2020 election was 'rigged'
Pictured: East Lake High School in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Clemetson was a substitute teacher here and was let go in March after refusing to call a student by their preferred name
'He was supposed to play a documentary for my … environmental class called "Plastic Wars,"' Thompson reads aloud from the teacher's grievance report.
'Plastic Wars' is a documentary that aired in 2020 about recycling and how plastic contributes to environmental pollution.
'He turned the documentary off after about 20 minutes and called me a liberal radical and a tree hugger and an environmental quack,' Thompson reads aloud, in the recording of the meeting.
Clemetson denied that this ever happened.
DailyMail.com reached out to Laramie County School District #1 to inquire further about the falling out with Clemetson.
Clemetson told Cowboy State Daily he believes that calling students by their legal names is a matter of free speech.
Courts around the country have ruled on similar cases to his, including Virginia's Supreme Court, which recently revived a lawsuit from teacher Peter Vlaming who claims he was fired in 2018 for not using a student's preferred pronouns.
But in Clemetson's home state of Wyoming, a federal judge ruled last year that teachers don't have a free speech right to call students by their given name if the school's policy requires them to use preferred names.
As of now, it is unclear if the school district Clemetson was teaching in has such a policy.