Rose Tagnesi, a California educator, is taking legal action against her former employer after she was accused of being a witch because of her sexual orientation.
Tagnesi admitted that she wants “justice” to be rightfully served for the homophobic and discriminatory comments that were made about her after she pushed back against the school district’s wildly offensive and outdated agenda.
The teacher was called a ‘witch’ in an ‘LGBTQ coven’ by a school board trustee because she didn’t align with the district’s values.’
In a lawsuit filed in San Diego Superior Court back in August 2024, Tagnesi, a former special education director for the Grossmont Union High School district, is suing her former employer, alleging that she faced harassment and retaliation for opposing the districts’ “anti-LGBTQ agenda.”
According to court documents reported by KGTVTagnesi claimed that during her 28-year career with the district, she was told by at least one supervisor to keep a “low profile” because her sexual orientation would prevent her from being promoted.
Despite staying in the closet, Tagnesi explained that she was still targeted by members of the school board, who continued to harass her until she eventually resigned in February 2023.
“I want justice, and I want accountability, but most of all, I want it to stop, and I want there to be some awareness that it’s happening,” Tagnesi told San Diego’s KGTV of the alleged discrimination that led to her lawsuit against GUHSD.
Tagnesi recalled that while keeping her sexuality quiet, she received glowing performance reviews and multiple promotions. She was even named Administrator of the Year in Special Education in 2022 by the Association of California School Administrators. However, Tagnesi alleges that one of the school board trustees, Jim Kelly, called her and one of her subordinates “witches part of an LGBTQ coven,” per the lawsuit.
Kelly also made further inappropriate comments about Tagnesi and her subordinate, claiming that the woman was only hired because she was “hot” and Tagnesi was attracted to women. In a statement to KGTV, Kelly denied all of the allegations made against him by Tagnesi.
Tagnesi was placed on paid administrative leave during an investigation into conduct and job performance.
She described this as essentially being a “witch hunt,” and the investigating attorney allegedly sent a text message celebrating another staff member’s dismissal, writing, “one down, one to go,” which Tagnesi believed was meant to be about her. After that, she had no choice but to leave the school district and find employment elsewhere.
“I dedicated my life to working with kids with disabilities, and to have this happen to me after 30 years of all the work — it was so painful, it was so traumatic,” Tagnesi said. “I’ve never been told what I did. I’ve never been told what I was accused of doing. I’ve never been even asked a question.”
Tagnesi’s lawsuit characterizes her resignation as a “wrongful constructive discharge,” alleging that her “workplace environment was so infected with discrimination” that she had “no choice but to resign from GUHSD because of the hostile working conditions.”
As “Them” noted, Tagnesi was put on paid leave the same month that the GUHSD board voted 3-2 to cut ties with a mental healthcare provider over its LGBTQ+ services, which includes referrals for gender-affirming care. One board member even said the district needed to find a provider that better reflected “East County Values.”
Tagnesi’s treatment is a bitter reflection of the influx of anti-LGTBQ education laws that have affected schools across the country.
Nearly one in three LGTBQ+ students say their school has at least one anti-LGBTQ+ policy, according to a survey conducted by the Trevor Project. About 18,000 LGBTQ+ youth, ages 13-24, were polled about whether students were able to do things like use their chosen name or pronouns and use locker rooms that matched their gender identity.
“These alarming findings signal that anti-LGBTQ+ school policies have real-life consequences on the mental health, well-being, and overall safety of LGBTQ+ youth,” Ronita Nath, Vice President of Research at The Trevor Project, told TIME Magazine. “Young people learn harmful and discriminatory behavior from the adults, communities, and institutions that raise them.”
“When anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment is normalized in school environments, it is then internalized by students and creates a culture of intolerance and hostility towards LGBTQ+ people in general,” she said.
In 2023, seventeen states enacted more than 30 new LGBTQ-related education laws, which were slated to be in effect for the 2023-24 school year unless they were blocked in court, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.
In addition to Florida’s ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill, Arkansas, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, and North Carolina enacted restrictions on LGBTQ-related instruction in schools. Currently, 11 states have laws censoring discussions of LGBTQ people or issues in schools, and several other states have laws requiring parental notification of LGBTQ-inclusive curricula.
For Rose Tagnesi to speak up against some of those anti-LGTBQ+ agendas only to lose her job in the process is very telling. It’s a bleak reminder that while we’ve made significant progress in the language and actions that we use to support LGBTQ+ rights, we still have a long way to go to make sure that schools are both inclusive and safe spaces for ALL students and educators.
Nia Tipton is a Chicago-based entertainment, news, and lifestyle writer whose work delves into modern-day issues and experiences.
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