A Florida elementary school teacher has been placed on administrative leave after allegedly forcing students to address her with the gender-neutral title “Mx” instead of “Ms” or “Mrs.”
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced Wednesday that a female teacher at Talbot Elementary School in Gainesville was requiring both students and staff to use this prefix. Uthmeier said the action violated state law and Alachua County School District policy, calling it “unacceptable.” He urged Alachua County Public Schools Superintendent Kamela Patton and the school board to enforce the law and consider disciplinary action against the teacher.
“The legislature so declared it the policy of Florida’s public school system that ‘sex is an immutable biological trait and that it is false to ascribe to a person a pronoun that does not correspond to such person’s sex,’” Uthmeier wrote in a letter.
Under Florida law, enacted in 2023 and signed by Governor Ron DeSantis, K–12 school employees are prohibited from using preferred pronouns or titles that do not align with their biological sex.
District spokesperson Jackie Johnson confirmed to The Gainesville Sun that the teacher has been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation.
The case comes amid ongoing controversy in the Alachua County School District. The Florida Department of Education recently began monitoring school board meetings after determining the board violated parents’ free speech rights during a July meeting.
