Gender Confused Teacher Allowed to Continue Teaching after ‘Shooting Students’ Comment

Parents at a Hernando County, Florida middle school are demanding that a teacher be fired after it was discovered that the teacher was allowed to continue teaching for weeks despite making alarming comments to a guidance counselor that he wanted to “shoot some students.”

As reported by The Post Millennial, Fox Chapel Middle School math teacher Ashlee Renczkowski, a biological male who identifies as a woman, spoke to a school guidance counselor in late March and remarked that he was “having bad thoughts” and “wanted to shoot some students.” He allegedly went on to say that he “has suicidal thoughts” and “three handguns at home.” Renczkowski’s comments were apparently sparked by his anger over “a social media post where people were talking negatively about her sexual orientation” as well as some of his students “not performing to their ability.” After making the remarks, Renczkowski allegedly then stated that he “would never harm a student.”

A sheriff’s report of the incident dated March 24 notes that Renczkowski “is taking hormone medications and is planning on having surgery over the summer.” It also states that he “experiences phases of depression and is on medication for depression,” and that he was planning on meeting “a new therapist.”

Following the incident, a judge granted a permanent Risk Protection Order, and a deputy went to Renczkowski’s residence and removed three firearms and ammunition. Despite this, Renczkowski was later cleared to return to teaching, and resumed doing so after school personnel and the Hernando County Sheriff’s Office decided that his comments did not pose an imminent threat.

On Thursday, almost three weeks after the initial incident, Hernando School District Superintendent released a statement saying that based on an ongoing investigation into the incident because of the release of “details not previously known by the school district,” Renczkowski would be “removed from all student contact” and that a date for the teacher’s return would be determined based on the investigation.

News of the school allowing Renczkowski to continue teaching for almost three weeks following his threatening comments comes just over two weeks after a gender confused woman shot and killed six people, including three children, at a Christian private school in Nashville, Tenn.

Aramis Rosario, a Fox Chapel Middle School parent, told Fox 13, “I just was very upset and furious at the fact that they would allow a teacher to still work here with students, knowing that she said that.”

Meg Kilgannon, senior fellow for Education Studies at Family Research Council, told The Washington Stand that the incident is illustrative of deep-seated issues that plague American public education.

“This story is such a sad example of how progressive philosophies have destroyed public education and the children who are trapped in it,” she observed. “When classroom behavior is so uncontrolled that it prompts a teacher to even joke about shooting the children, that should tell you that progressive disciplinary policies, social breakdown during the pandemic, and a crisis in the family are not helping kids learn or enhancing the educational environment.”

Kilgannon continued, “Parents can reasonably wonder if identity politics protects teachers at the expense of children. And progressive disciplinary policies imply civil rights violations when student behavior results in consequences for those students. This is such a fundamental misunderstanding of civil rights. And it shows how far from protecting the dignity of the human person we have strayed.”

“Christians need to pray for public schools and consider how they can impact the system to protect the children,” she concluded. “Maybe that’s running for office, maybe that’s running a parent’s group, maybe that’s sending a FOIA [Freedom of Information Act] request, maybe it’s spending more time with your own children or grandchildren, or if you live far away from your grandchildren, trying to help out families in your own community in practical ways. But whatever your temporal effort may be, it must be grounded in prayer.”