A substitute teacher says he’s been barred from a Cheyenne-based school district after refusing to use preferred transgender names of students.
Gene Clemetson was escorted out of East High School in Laramie County School District No. 1 while substitute teaching in March, he told Cowboy State Daily in a recent interview.
The conflict began when a student whom Clemetson described as a boy identifying as a girl approached Clemetson and asked to be called by an alternate name.
“I said to him, very politely, I have to go by the name on the roster,” Clemetson recounted.
The student returned with another teacher, who said the student’s parents had approved of the school using the 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 recalls saying.
Clemetson told Cowboy State Daily that if a student were to legally change his or her name, then Clemetson would call the student by the student’s new name. He said he resists a trend of bowing to people’s fleeting “whim or frivolity” about the names issue.
