Jessica Tapia, a Christian former teacher who was fired for refusing to use “preferred pronouns” or hide a student’s gender identity from parents, is 36 years old from her former employer, California’s Jurupa Unified School District. After securing a $1 million settlement, he told Fox News Digital: To other faith educators, “Truth will prevail in the end.”
Tuesday’s settlement comes nearly a year after Tapia first sued in California federal court.
Tapia, who has been involved with the Jurupa Unified School District for more than 20 years, first as a student and then as a teacher and coach, told FOX News Digital, “From the second day I was drawn into the first meeting with the district, I was… This is what he said.” , we knew that this was a serious spiritual war, a real battle that was being seen across the country, especially around education and children. ”
The ordeal began on September 30, 2022, when the school district issued Ms. Tapia an “unprofessional conduct notice, notifying her that she engaged in unprofessional conduct under California Education Code Section 44938.” and filed “12 unfounded allegations” against her. According to the lawsuit.
Christian’s former teacher sues California for refusing to hide child’s gender change from parents
Jessica Tapia speaks at the California Policy Center’s “Line in the Sand: A Rally for Parental Rights” in Simi Valley on September 26, 2023. (Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Tapia told Fox News Digital that students looked her up on social media and “discovered things that I don’t talk about in class,” and that her stances on various topics made her “outspoken.” It has been revealed that he is a Christian conservative. Tapia said on her personal social media accounts that she does not identify herself as affiliated with the district, but that some of her students are “not part of my values and beliefs.” “The department does not align with their values,” she said. The students then sent the district about seven or eight specific posts from her “Jesus Highlights” on Instagram.
“When the students found me on social media, they immediately alerted the school district. The next day, I was separated from my students and removed from class, never to return,” Tapia told Fox News Digital. Told. “I was placed on paid leave and he had three different meetings at the district office.”
According to the complaint, the district accused her of “posting offensive content on her public Instagram account, mentioning her faith in conversations with students, and expressing controversial opinions on issues related to gender identity.” There is. In a second meeting, the district required Tapia to “refrain from lying to parents about the child’s gender identity, from referring to students by their preferred pronouns, and from expressing any student or religious beliefs to students.” A “support and instruction plan” was proposed. On her social media, allow students to use restrooms and locker rooms that match their preferred gender. ”
Tapia requested religious accommodations, arguing that she could not comply with the directive because it went against her beliefs.
“The third and final meeting in January 2023 was a religious accommodations meeting where I was asked probing questions about my Christian beliefs,” Tapia said. “And ultimately they decided they couldn’t accommodate my religious beliefs and decided to fire me.”
Tapia told FOX News Digital that she did not require students to identify as the opposite gender as listed on their class roster or allow them to enter girls’ locker rooms as biological males. He said he never asked for anything. This is based on the assumption that if she had a transgender student, she would address the situation.
Jessica Tapia was fired from Jurupa Unified School District for refusing to follow transgender directives. (Fox News Digital)
Tapia said she lost income and was worried that her family would lose their home, but she found comfort in the Bible verse from Matthew 10:39. Their lives for Me will surely be found. ”
“I could have saved my life. When I say life in this situation, I’m obviously talking about my teaching job and my salary. I could have saved it myself. I could have controlled it. I could have saved it by just doing this.’ I said, ‘Yes,’ and followed these instructions,” Tapia said. “But I decided to understand that God is in control. He is in control of my life. And if I lose my life… I don’t know what it would be like if I lost it.” I’ll see, but somehow God will show me my life, or I’ll choose God and find the truth here. By choosing to stand within, you will find your true purpose. ”
Her lawyer, Julianne Fleischer, of Advocates for Faith & Freedom, a nonprofit religious freedom law firm that handled the case in May 2023, told Fox News Digital that Ms. Tapia He said he had “no negative performance reviews” and always “maintained a level of respect.” She is for all the students she has. ”
“The school district fired her specifically because of her religious beliefs,” Fleischer said. “What we’re seeing with these types of directives is a kind of religious test as school districts across the country implement various transgender policies and threaten teachers and educators with firings… Because they are essentially religious tests.” “You have to ascribe to our religion, or you are not qualified to work as a public school teacher.” And Jessica Religious beliefs become secondary to the school district’s ideology related to transgender people and transgender policies.
Jurupa Unified School District Superintendent Trenton Hansen (right) is named in the lawsuit filed by former teacher Jessica Tapia. (JurupaUSD YouTube)
“What the district has done and this type of testing essentially makes faith teachers unqualified to serve in public schools,” she added.
Tapia graduated from Jurupa Valley High School in 2010 and has since returned to the district that “essentially raised me” as a teacher, coach and lifeguard, so the changes taking place in society and culture are “extreme.” However, “government education” seems to be adapting to them. If “the so-called religion that seemed to be practiced in the school district existed when I was a student,” she probably would not have attended the Bible studies that her swim coach invited her to attend throughout high school. she said. teenagers.
Fox News Digital reached out to the Jurupa Valley School District for comment Wednesday but did not receive a response.
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Tapia partnered with Faith and Freedom Defenders on the “Teachers Don’t Lie” initiative, which aims to provide teachers of faith with resources about their constitutional rights.
She said teachers don’t lie to students, to parents, and lastly, to themselves.
“They are our students, but they are not our children. So we have to respect the parents. The rights of the parents are first and foremost the child,” Tapia told Fox News Digital. told. “For eight hours a day at school, I was asked to leave my beliefs at the school gate and just… do whatever they wanted me to do. You know, that too. It was a scary thought: “If this is what they want me to do now, I know I can’t end it here.”
