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Florida teacher fired because she called a student the 'wrong' name [1]
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Date: 2025-04-10
In Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice," Portia pleads with Shylock to show mercy to Antonio by not demanding the 'pound of flesh' Antonio owed him after he could not pay back the money he had borrowed. Poetically, she pleaded:
“The quality of mercy is not strain'd.
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath.” Adding: “It is twice blest:
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.
'Tis mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes
The thronèd monarch better than his crown.”
Unfortunately for Melissa Calhoun, a teacher for 11 years in Brevard County, FL, her "thronèd monarch" is Gov. Ron DeSantis. And he is a man for whom mercy might as well be an undocumented alien for all the antipathy he shows to it.
Calhoun ran afoul of DeSantis's campaign to deny LGBTQ students the right to determine their own identity. Specifically, she respected the request of one of her students to be called by a name with female connotations without asking the young scholar's parents for permission.
For this breach of state law, she was one and done. No warning. She was axed. Was the penalty proportionate to the offense? In civilized jurisdictions, of course not. But this is Florida, where any deviation from government-enforced orthodoxy can result in the death penalty for your career.
This is how the Washington Post reported the event in an article headlined: Florida teacher loses job for calling student by preferred name.
'Melissa Calhoun had taught in Brevard County for 11 years when she ran headlong into a state rule that bars school staff from deviating from students' legal names without written parental permission. The rule applies to students who choose an alternative name because of a change in gender identity, as well as those who might want to use a nickname. In this case, Calhoun was respecting the wishes of a student whose legal name is associated with girls, a person familiar with the situation said.
For this "respecting," a parent took umbrage, and Calhoun got canned. The report explained:
One of the student's parents complained to the school district, which investigated the matter. The teacher admitted to knowingly using an alternative name without permission, district spokeswoman Janet Murnaghan said in a statement. This "directly violates state law" and district procedures, she said. The teacher received a letter of reprimand and was told last week that her annual contract, which expires in May, was not renewed, though she will finish out this school year.
I get the letter of reprimand. The law, regardless of whether it makes sense, is the law. But was this infraction so unforgivable that Calhoun must relocate to a compassionate state to resume her teaching career? I think not. The Florida authorities think so.
In fairness, Calhoun has not yet received the ultimate career sanction. As WaPo points out:
Calhoun's contract was not renewed because the state of Florida will be reviewing her teaching certificate based on this case, Murnaghan said, and the district will not bring her back until the issue is resolved with the state. A spokesperson for the Florida Department of Education did not respond to a request for comment.
However, knowing the sadistic MAGA hive mind, I do not expect that mercy will be on the menu for this sympathetic soul.
Now, back to the Merchant of Venice. Later in her speech, Portia expresses the philosophy made famous by Alexander Pope, "To err is human; to forgive, divine," when she said:
"But mercy is above this sceptered sway.
It is enthronèd in the hearts of kings;
It is an attribute to God Himself;
And earthly power doth then show likest God's
When mercy seasons justice.”
Calhoun is out of luck. Mercy may be an attribute of Jesus and his Father. But the God that DeSantis prays to will never let mercy season justice. In The Merchant of Venice, Antonio knew well the kind of Christian DeSantis is.
"The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.
An evil soul producing holy witness
Is like a villain with a smiling cheek,
A goodly apple rotten at the heart:
O, what a goodly outside falsehood hath!
There are many devils populating the hell that is MAGAland. And they are rigorous in cherry-picking their scripture to justify their malicious hate.
Let King Lear have the last word that DeSantis and his kind will never utter, as rigid as they are in their own sadistic sanctimony and so unwilling to admit fault.
"I did her wrong."
What acknowledgment of error Cordelia received from her father Calhoun will never receive from the Florida state authorities. What a tragedy.
[END]
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