Teachers Are Under Fire As Grooming Panic Endangers Their Safety
A South Carolina Teacher is Suing the Father of One of Her Former Students for Defamation.
Editor’s note: This article includes mention of suicide and contains details about those who have attempted to take their own lives. If you are having thoughts of suicide, or are concerned that someone you know may be, resources are available here.
Middle school computer technology teacher Mardy Burleson lives in fear. She frequently pulls her car to the side of the road to make sure nobody is following her, is “constantly on alert” when doing yard work, and looks down grocery store aisles before grabbing milk.
“Just basically being aware of my surroundings at all times,” Burleson, a 57-year-old mother who lives with her family in Bluffton, South Carolina, told Uncloseted Media. “It's a small community, and I know the faces of these people.”
It all started last year when Burleson gave her class an introductory worksheet called “Who is behind those eyes,” where students had the option to list their preferred pronouns. Burleson says the father of one of her students, David Cook, was so outraged by the pronoun question that he reported it to Corey Allen, a local who runs a Substack “to shine a light on corruption, fraud, cronyism, and to show how ridiculous the philosophies of leftism are.”
In an article titled “SC Teacher Busted: Secret Gender/Sex-Orientation Surveys to Middle Schoolers” — now listed as the Most Popular article on his page — Allen accused Burleson, whose son is trans, of “transing” her child and that she was “re-enact[ing] the ritual upon pre-teen students which will potentially and irreparably harm multiple graduating classes.”
He also accused Burleson of “grooming pre-teen students into an overtly sexualized lifestyle.” On Facebook, folks ratcheted up the threats. One user commented that their pronouns were “Fuck around/Find out.” Another said Burleson’s survey “has to be a malicious crime” and that someone should “put her name on a billboard.” A third commenter said that this is how teachers prey upon children and that it’s “just short of sexual misconduct.”
Burleson— who wound up having to take a paid leave of absence and transfer schools upon return— is now suing Cook and four others for defamation/slander and libel per se. “People think anything they say is protected, and that’s just not the case,” Burleson’s lawyer, Meg Phelan, told Uncloseted Media.
Document: Burleson v. Beach, No. 2024CP0701902 (Filed Sept. 4, 2024)
Uncloseted Media reached out to all five defendants. Three did not respond. In an email, David Cook told Uncloseted Media he does not respond to ongoing litigation. Corey Allen, referenced in the complaint by his legal name, Corey Whittington, said he had no comment.
“I’m all for the First Amendment, but you can’t use defamatory language with impunity,” says Phelan, whose organization, Equality Legal Action Fund, offers pro bono legal assistance to “protect members of the LGBTQ+ community, educators and allied elected officials from defamation and harassment.”
Burleson’s case may sound extreme, but it's symbolic of a growing movement of parents, politicians and right-wing activists who label American teachers educating about LGBTQ issues as “groomers” and accuse them of being pedophiles exploiting children for sex.
This rhetoric has resulted in violence. In Sept. 2023, The Proud Boys attacked pro-LGBTQ demonstrators at a California school board meeting where they were deciding whether to recognize June as Pride Month. And in June 2023, ProPublica released a report where they identified dozens of occasions going back to the spring of 2021—some spurred by arguments over LGBTQ student rights—where there were arrests or criminal charges at school board meetings
By calling the support of LGBTQ youth “grooming, it implies a form of predatory sexual violence that justifies violence against the teachers,” says Michelle O’Brien, who teaches queer studies at New York University.
Teacher’s stress levels are already high. A 2022 study found that nearly three-fourths of the roughly 2,350 surveyed teachers are experiencing frequent job-related stress, compared to roughly a third of working adults. And nearly half of teachers surveyed say political polarization is causing them stress and that conflict over political issues has been linked to lower educator well-being and increased intentions to leave the profession.
But what’s changed more recently is their concern over safety. As violence and aggression have increased against K-12 teachers in the last few years, there has been a sharp increase in the percentage of teachers expressing intentions to resign or transfer. A survey conducted this year of 8,296 teachers in 34 states—including 2,000 from Florida—found that more than half have been afraid to go to school at some point because of violence.
Because of all of these issues, LGBTQ educators are even more nervous to speak out. “It has had a chilling effect in education in Florida because those of us who are queer, we’re now afraid to talk,” says Michael Woods, a high school teacher in Palm Beach County, Florida, who says he’s one of the few people speaking out because he’s been teaching for over 30 years and “has less to lose.”
Woods says the “teachers are groomers” narrative started heating up in 2022 when it became part of the national rhetoric among news anchors and politicians.
For example, in March 2022, Fox News host Laura Ingraham asked her audience of more than two million, “When did our public schools, any schools, become what are essentially grooming centers for gender identity radicals? As a mom, I think it's appalling, it's frightening, it's disgusting, it's despicable.” Later that year, current Vice Presidential candidate J.D. Vance said that “the Democrats are actually advocating to teach about sexuality and crazy gender theory to 7-year-old children… If you don’t want to be called a groomer, don’t try to sexualize six and seven-year-old children.”
Fast forward to August of this year when former President Donald Trump falsely stated that public schools are providing gender reassignment surgeries to students. “Your kid goes to school and comes home a few days later with an operation,” he told Moms for Liberty co-founder Tiffany Justice.
“It’s just very uncomfortable,” says Woods. “And then you hear your friends start using those words. Because J.D. Vance has put that word back in the psyche, on a national level.”
In Woods’ own state, Governor Ron DeSantis, in 2022, signed a variety of bills that strip teachers of the freedom to teach about LGBTQ issues in the classroom. HB 7, for example, was dubbed the Stop WOKE Act, and the Parental Rights in Education bill—widely known as the “Don’t Say Gay” law— prohibits classroom instruction about “sexual orientation or gender identity” in kindergarten through third grade. DeSantis’ press secretary tweeted to opponents of the Don’t Say Gay law in March 2022: “If you’re against the Anti-Grooming Bill, you are probably a groomer or at least you don’t denounce the grooming of 4-8-year-old children. Silence is complicity. This is how it works.”
“You see a governor and a legislature trying to weaponize people's identity in a political fashion,” says Andrew Spar, President of Florida Education Association, the state’s largest union of teachers. “The government has created an environment in which LGBTQ teachers and students are bullied,” he told Uncloseted Media.
Later that year, current House Speaker Mike Johnson — who has said that if we give gay people the right to marry, “pedophiles and others [would] be next in line to claim equal protection”— introduced what many call a national version of the Don’t Say Gay bill.
Spar says these laws were a catalyst for the formation of right-wing advocacy groups that peddle the “teachers are grooming” narrative. The most notorious group is Gays Against Groomers (GAG), a 501(c)(4) nonprofit that was created in 2022 by Jaimee Michell, who had previously worked for a variety of right-wing communications firms. GAG describes themselves as “gays, lesbians, and others in the community” who are “fighting back from inside the community against the sexualization, indoctrination, and medicalization of children happening under the guise of LGBTQIA+.”
Since its formation, Uncloseted Media has identified GAG chapters in at least 22 states. They’ve organized local rallies like one called “Protect the Children,” and they’ve engaged in legislative advocacy where they’ve voiced support for or testified in favor of bills that would strip LGBTQ people of their rights.
Jana Warnecke, the Chapter Leader for Gays Against Groomers in Florida, told Uncloseted Media that her interest in this space started in 2022 when she was having personal issues and didn’t know what to do with her time, so she started watching TikTok. “I was seeing different creators, and I was like, ‘You know what? I could do this.’ And I just started making funny videos. And then I really started to see a need for people to speak out and protect kids,” she says. From there, she started posting to her Instagram and TikTok, where she has amassed tens of thousands of followers and posts content misgendering trans people, calling a trans man a “woman with a mental illness,” and reels celebrating gender-affirming care bans. Shortly after she started posting, Warnecke says GAG Founder Michell reached out to ask her if she wanted to formally join the organization.
Since becoming a Chapter Lead, Warnecke recruits new members and speaks out at school board meetings and state capitals, including earlier this year in Ohio where she spoke in favor of a bill that would prohibit certain adult drag and cabaret performances. “Now, we wouldn’t be shocked if this bill faced opposition, but let’s be clear, anyone opposing this bill, in [a] sense, is telling on themselves,” she said. "By classifying this bill as a fourth or fifth-degree felony, the bill appropriately recognizes the severity and ensures that those who engage in such predatorial [sic] behaviors face the consequences they deserve."
“The truth is that children are being groomed,” Warnecke told Uncloseted Media. “I'm not saying all teachers are bad, but these types of behaviors should be called out.”
“Anybody in authority over children can be predatory,” she says, adding that part of her motivation is because she was sexually assaulted in third grade and wants to be “of service” to others.
We repeatedly asked Warnecke to point to examples of teachers who are predatory. “I don't have one currently with me now,” she said. “I feel like I have been on this interview for 44 minutes, and I actually don't have anything prepared because you didn't prepare me. So I can't really accurately answer that right now.”
Warnecke also expressed concerns about kids who were “trans[ing] the gay away,” meaning they would become trans in an effort to avoid identifying as homosexual. When asked for examples, she said, “I don't have names. I don't have anything currently with me. I can't even think. I don't know.”
While Warnecke wasn’t able to point to real examples, her group’s rhetoric and the laws related to it are having real-world consequences for teachers like Carrik, a high school teacher in southeast Florida who asked we only use his first name for safety reasons.
Carrik says being a trans teacher puts him in double jeopardy. “Both of those groups are called groomers,” he says. “The past couple of years have been very challenging. There have been many a moment with mental health and dealing with struggles of self-harm and suicide.”
While he’s built up a support system and is in a better place mentally, he admits that life as a teacher still isn’t easy. “Being bombarded with this rhetoric takes a hit on your self-worth,” he says, adding he takes pride in coming from a long line of teachers in his family.
For years, Carrik had run his school's Gay-Straight Alliance, where they made T-shirts with tie dye, decorated pumpkins around Halloween, and did gift exchanges over the holidays. But things have changed in the wake of the groomer narrative and laws associated with it. “My GSA, it’s basically nonexistent on campus because the students now have to get signed permission from their parents or guardians to be in the club. And that deters the majority of students who aren’t out at home to come and sit in,” he says.
Back in South Carolina, middle school computer teacher Mardy Burleson is getting ready for her lawsuit against the folks in her community who attacked her online after she gave her students a sheet asking for their pronouns.
She says the fear got so intense that she and her husband went to purchase a gun for added protection. But at the shop, she broke down. “I had a panic attack in line. And by the time we got to the counter, I couldn't breathe. I was hyperventilating. I was in tears, just bawling my brains out with all of these assault weapons everywhere. I couldn't do it,” she says, explaining that because of school shootings, she doesn’t feel comfortable owning a gun.
“I was driven to the point where I was ready to compromise my values,” she says.
Burleson’s lawyer, Meg Phelan, says there’s a reason her organization is focusing its pro bono work on educators. “Most educators don’t have $50,000 to spend on defamation litigation,” she says, adding that her organization was created in part because of the “absolute uptick” in folks attacking LGBTQ-affirming teachers for being sexual predators.
“These teachers are trying to inspire students but there’s now a trend where those trying to be inclusive of all students are getting this backlash,” she says. “We want to help teachers be inspiring and inclusive in their classrooms instead of making them spend their time and money defending personal and professional reputation.”
Phelan says that while Burleson’s South Carolina case wouldn’t be binding on other states, “it could be persuasive. So we’re hoping to set a good precedent.”
Additional reporting by Sam Donndelinger and Hope Pisoni.
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To bigots: We're not sexualizing them. YOU are.
Gender identity and pronouns have nothing to do with having sex.
It is YOUR eternally frustrated incel libido, always in overdrive...gotta sexsexsexsexsex!!! running through your thoughts 24/7, that makes things other people are doing about sex.
Go get laid. Masturbate. Fuck a couch. Take a frigging load off. Jeesus.