Teachers have right to hold personal opinions

Nowhere in my letter did I mention my profession, so by doing so, Mr. Knapp, you have conflated my personal opinions as a private citizen with my role as an educator. Therefore it seems you are trying to claim I am somehow responsible for child indoctrination. That's absurd. Please refrain from combining the two. 

Secondly, of course parents have a right to decide what their children read. I said that the first time. What you and your cohort don't have the right to do is tell other parents what they can let their kids read. There seems to be a disconnect for you thinking that your ideology is the correct one and no one else is allowed to have opinions of their own. Homosexual and genderqueer people have existed forever, Mr. Knapp. Sexuality is biological, not some choice that one forces on another. Gender identity is, too.

The reason you hear more about it in the past few years is because society is evolving to accept that what it thought was correct was in fact not. I suggest you evolve, too, because people are people regardless of their sexual identity.

I would like you to tell me where "Lawn Boy" is currently shelved in our school libraries because I can already say it's not. Therefore, your argument is invalid. Raise your kids in ignorance and discrimination if you choose. That's your right. Leave evolved and accepting people alone.

REBECCA PALMER

Sandpoint

P.S. Teachers like myself are also property owners and pay property taxes. Educators aren't your servants. We're your neighbors. We're citizens who have the same rights to freedom of speech as you do. More than that, we are people who love the community's children. Period.