Idaho’s Teacher of the Year Left the State After Right Wing Harassment

Idaho’s Teacher of the Year, Karen Lauritzen, has moved out of the state for a new job following intense right-wing harassment over her support of the LGBTQ+ community and Black Lives Matter.

Lauritzen received the statewide honor last September, after 21 years of teaching. However, the day after the fourth-grade teacher was announced as Teacher of the Year, she was met with right-wing attacks from social media users and conservative media. The Idaho Tribune went so far as to accuse her of being a “left-wing activist” who “promotes transgenderism.”

Lauritzen told the Boston Globe that this response was based on her liking posts supporting the LGBTQ+ community and Black Lives Matter on her personal social media accounts; she does not teach LGBTQ+ subjects in her class curriculum. Soon, her personal life was affected as parents in her community began emailing her to accuse her of teaching inappropriate content — although discussions of sexuality in her curriculum were already prohibited by her school district — and complain about Lauritzen teaching lessons about certain subjects, including the United Nations.

“I should have felt celebrated and should have felt like this is a great year, and honestly it was one of the toughest years I have ever had teaching, not only with my community, but with parents questioning every decision I made as well,” she told The Globe.

“Even if I have certain beliefs myself, that doesn’t mean that I teach kids,” Lauritzen continued. “It’s not my job to ‘indoctrinate’ or make kids little versions of myself. It’s to make kids into the best versions of themselves.”

Since she began facing online harassment last fall, the 44-year-old has moved to Illinois, where she now works at a university teaching prospective teachers. Lauritzen isn’t the only Teacher of the Year recipient whose tenure was cut short as public education becomes increasingly politicized. Kentucky’s 2020 Teacher of the Year Willie Carver, an out gay man in a rural school district, was targeted by online trolls, social media posts, and even school board speakers following his appointment. Eventually, he left his job teaching high school English and French to work as an academic advisor at a university.

As The Globe notes, most U.S. states’ Teacher of the Year selection process use a similar format involving nominations, essay questions, interviews, and more. However, in more recent years, some states’ processes have grown increasingly political. For instance, Arkansas’ contest form was reportedly recently updated to ask teachers to explain how Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ recent laws targeting the restriction of critical race theory and the LGBTQ+ community had a positive impact on students.

As teachers continue to deal with harassment and even the threat of firings in states pursuing the censorship of LGBTQ+ and critical race topics in curriculum, the United States is facing a serious teacher shortage. In February, a National Education Association poll found that 55% of teachers plan to leave the profession sooner than planned, up from 37 percent in August of 2021.

“[Teachers don’t feel valued,” Lauritzen told The Globe. “And if you can’t pay them well, they at least need to feel that you value their judgment, they’re doing good things, and [they] have children’s best interest at heart. And when you take that away — what’s left?”

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