Florida teacher who forced students to address her as ‘Mx.’ instead of ‘Ms.’ of ‘Mrs.’ put on leave

A Gainesville elementary school teacher has been placed on leave after Florida’s attorney general accused her of breaking state law by asking to be addressed with the gender-neutral title “Mx.” instead of “Ms.” or “Mrs.”

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier on Wednesday called the teacher’s behavior “unacceptable” in letter to Alachua County Public Schools Superintendent Kamela Patton and the district’s school board.

Uthmeier urged school officials in Gainesville to “enforce the law and consider disciplinary action,” warning that failure to do so could expose them to legal liability.

The teacher, whose name has not been released, works at Talbot Elementary School in Gainesville.

Jackie Johnson, a spokesperson for the district, confirmed to the Gainesville Sun that the employee had been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation.

According to Uthmeier, his newly created Office of Parental Rights received a complaint alleging that “a female teacher was forcing students and faculty to address her with the prefix ‘Mx.’ instead of ‘Ms.’ or ‘Mrs.’”

He said the term “is a made-up” and “ideological” label that “interferes with parents’ religious upbringing of their children” and is “unfit for a Florida educational setting.”

Florida House Bill 1069 which was signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis in July 2023 bars K-12 school employees from using preferred personal titles or pronouns that do not align with their sex assigned at birth.

The law also mandates that sex education instruction teach that biological sex is “binary” and “unchangeable.”

“The legislature so declared it the policy of Florida’s public school system that ‘sex is an immutable biological trait and that it is false to ascribe to a person a pronoun that does not correspond to such person’s sex’,” Uthmeier wrote.

The attorney general said that the honorific “Mx.” undermines that policy and directed the district to ensure the title “be dropped in the school setting immediately.”

Education Commissioner Anastasios Kamoutsas echoed Uthmeier’s remarks in a post on X, calling the allegations “deeply troubling and ones that I will not take lightly.”

The “Mx.” debate centers on a title that has existed for decades. Merriam-Webster defines it as a “gender-neutral honorific” for people who do not identify with a specific gender or prefer not to disclose one.

First appearing in print in 1977, “Mx.” was added to the dictionary in 2017 and is increasingly used in the United Kingdom on government forms and in professional contexts, according to Merriam-Webster.

Language experts note that “Mx.” is typically pronounced “mix” or “mux” and functions like “Mr.” or “Ms.” for those seeking a nonbinary option.

The Post has sought comment from the attorney general’s office, the Florida Department of Education and Alachua County Public Schools.