Teacher reveals how he was fired for refusing to call children who identified as trans by their preferred pronouns

A substitute teacher in a Cheyenne school district, Wyomingwas fired from two different schools for refusing to call students who identified as transgender by their chosen names.

While Gene Clemetson was teaching a classroom at East High School in March, he was approached by a student he described as a boy who identified as a girl. This student asked to be called with a different name than what was on the attendance list.

“I told him very politely, I have to use the name on the roster,” Clemetson said Cowboy stands daily.

After they were unable to resolve the issue, the student left and returned with another teacher who told Clemetson that the student’s parents were okay with their child being called by this alternate name.

“Well, that’s great, but again, when I call attendees, when I call the list, I use the names that are officially registered with the district,” Clemetson said.

Substitute teacher Gene Clemetson, pictured, has opposed the requirement to call students by their preferred names if they identify as transgender. It led to his dismissal from two different schools in Wyoming

Sam Mirich, left, has been principal at East High School for 26 years and has announced his retirement. A new director will take over in August

At that point, Principal Sam Mirich intervened and told Clemetson that he “didn’t fit in at East High School” and that he “wasn’t welcome.”

“And he then told me he was going to report me to the administration and then had his assistant principal escort me out of the building,” Clemetson said.

A similar incident occurred during the spring semester at another school in the same district, Triumph High School.

A student who described Clemetson as a “young lady” again asked him to call her by a different name. The student became angry when he refused.

Triumph’s director also asked him to leave after the incident and told him that the Human Resources department would contact him.

Clemetson then met with HR representatives for Laramie County School District #1, including Assistant Superintendent of HR Vicki Thompson and HR Director Jen Brownhill.

Pictured: Vicki Thompson, assistant superintendent of HR Laramie County School District #1

He provided a recording of that meeting to Cowboy State Daily, in which he and Thompson went back and forth about numerous complaints filed against him by fellow faculty and students.

She detailed complaints from one student at East High School and three at Triumph High School, who were angry that Clemetson did not use their preferred names.

“Gene refused to use students’ preferred names,” Thompson reads from his substitute teacher’s evaluation in the recording. ‘Three students were angry and went to their supervisors or advisors.’

Clemetson fired back, asking if school policy requires subs to call students by their preferred names.

Thompson told him she would contact him about this.

Clemetson’s personal politics on matters beyond gender identity were also a topic of discussion at the meeting due to a complaint filed by a female teacher he signed up for in March.

Clemetson is pictured in New York City wearing a hat suggesting the 2020 election was ‘rigged’

Pictured: East Lake High School in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Clemetson was a substitute teacher here and was fired in March after refusing to call a student by his preferred name

“He was going to play a documentary for my…environmental class called ‘Plastic Wars,'” Thompson reads from the teacher’s complaint report.

‘Plastic Wars’ is a documentary that aired in 2020 about recycling and how plastic contributes to environmental pollution.

“He turned off the documentary after about 20 minutes and called me a liberal radical and a tree hugger and an environmental quack,” Thompson reads in the recording of the meeting.

Clemetson denied this ever happened.

DailyMail.com contacted Laramie County School District #1 to inquire further about the dispute with Clemetson.

Clemetson told Cowboy State Daily he believes calling students by their legal names is a free speech issue.

Courts across the country have ruled in cases similar to his, including the Supreme Court of Virginia recently revived a lawsuit from teacher Peter Vlaming who claims he was fired in 2018 for not using a student’s preferred pronouns.

But in Clemetson’s home state of Wyoming, a federal judge ruled last year that teachers do not have a free speech right to call students by their first names if the school’s policy requires them to use preferred names.

At this time, it is unclear whether the school district where Clemetson taught has such a policy.