This Florida superintendent threw a teacher under the bus after she made one simple mistake

A Florida teacher thought she was finally getting her life back on track.

Then her own superintendent decided to destroy her career anyway.

And this Florida superintendent threw a teacher under the bus after she made one simple mistake.

Melissa Calhoun fights for her teaching career

The radical Left has weaponized every aspect of American life – including our children’s education.

Florida has been leading the fight to restore common sense to the classroom and protect parental rights.

But sometimes the bureaucrats get it wrong and go after good teachers who made honest mistakes.

Melissa Calhoun taught AP English Literature at Satellite High School in Brevard County for more than a decade.¹

She had nearly flawless performance evaluations year after year, and her students consistently scored well above district and state averages on standardized tests.²

But Calhoun’s stellar teaching career came crashing down because she called a student by a nickname.

The student had been going by that name for four years – long before Florida’s parental consent law was even passed.³

Calhoun didn’t realize the student’s parents hadn’t given written permission for the nickname under the state’s new rules.

https://twitter.com/RedWave_Press/status/1910735883117998396

When she found out about the oversight, she immediately corrected it and started using the student’s legal name.⁴

State board gives teacher a second chance

A parent filed a complaint against Calhoun, accusing her of “grooming” the child.⁵

The school district investigated and found that Calhoun had made an honest mistake – not a deliberate attempt to undermine parental authority.

The district recommended only a letter of reprimand for the veteran teacher.⁶

But Brevard County Superintendent Mark Rendell refused to renew her contract anyway, claiming uncertainty about how the state might handle the case.⁷

Calhoun fought the decision and reached a settlement with the Florida Department of Education that allowed her to keep her teaching certificate.

The settlement required her to pay a $750 fine, take an ethics course, and serve a one-year probation period.⁸

Education Commissioner Anastasios Kamoutsas tried to block the deal, but the Education Practices Commission upheld it anyway.⁹

The very next day after the state cleared her to teach, Calhoun applied to get her job back with Brevard County.

Superintendent delivers crushing blow to teacher’s hopes

That’s when Superintendent Rendell delivered the devastating news that crushed Calhoun’s hopes of returning to her classroom.

He announced that Brevard County would not rehire her – at least not until she completes her full year of probation.¹⁰

“While the state has chosen to allow this individual to retain their certification under probation, I believe it is appropriate that the full term of that probation be completed before any consideration of employment,” Rendell stated.¹¹

But the superintendent didn’t stop there.

He went on to trash Calhoun’s character and claim she deliberately violated state law.

“This was not a mistake. This was a conscious and deliberate decision to engage in gender affirmation without parental knowledge,” Rendell declared.¹²

“Mrs. Calhoun has acknowledged that her actions were intentional and that she was aware of the law and violated it. That is deeply troubling,” he added.¹³

The superintendent’s harsh words contradict the district’s own investigation, which found that Calhoun called her actions a “complete oversight.”¹⁴

Even more telling – the district allowed Calhoun to finish out the school year in her classroom after the complaint was filed.

If Rendell really believed she was a danger to students, why would he let her keep teaching for months?

Support from unexpected places

School Board Member John Thomas called the superintendent’s decision a form of “double jeopardy.”¹⁵

“If we expect honesty from our educators, we must also be willing to extend the path to redemption. Anything less is hypocrisy,” Thomas stated.¹⁶

The local teachers’ union slammed Rendell’s decision as “politically motivated” and accused the district of putting politics over children.¹⁷

“If Ms. Calhoun were truly unfit to teach, why did the district allow her to remain in her classroom for the remainder of last year?” asked Brevard Federation of Teachers President Anthony Colucci.¹⁸

Even Calhoun’s former students rallied to her defense throughout the controversy.

Her students delivered some of the highest test scores in the district – her AP Literature classes crushed both district and state averages year after year.¹⁹

The bigger picture

Here’s what really happened: Florida passed a smart law to stop radical teachers from secretly pushing gender ideology on kids behind their parents’ backs.

But bureaucrats like Superintendent Rendell decided to use that law as a weapon against a teacher who wasn’t pushing any agenda at all.

Calhoun had been calling this student the same name for years before the law even existed.

She was a veteran teacher who had been calling a student by the same name for years without knowing the new law required written parental permission.

The state’s Education Practices Commission recognized this distinction and gave her a chance to redeem herself.

But Superintendent Rendell decided to destroy her career anyway – even after the state cleared her to teach again.

Now other teachers across Florida are watching what happened to Calhoun and asking themselves: if I make one honest mistake, will my superintendent throw me to the wolves too?

Rendell’s grandstanding doesn’t help anyone.

Good teachers need room to learn from their mistakes – especially when they fix the problem immediately and cooperate with every investigation.

Calhoun will find another teaching job somewhere else with administrators who actually care about results over politics.

The kids in Brevard County? They’re the ones who really lose out here.

¹ Finch Walker, “’No political intent’: Brevard teacher ousted over use of student’s chosen name won’t return to class,” Florida Today, August 11, 2025.

² Ibid.

³ Ibid.

⁴ Ibid.

⁵ Jacob Ogles, “Florida teacher fired for using student’s nickname won’t get her job back,” The Advocate, August 8, 2025.

⁶ Walker, “’No political intent’: Brevard teacher ousted over use of student’s chosen name won’t return to class.”

⁷ Ibid.

⁸ Ibid.

⁹ Ogles, “Florida teacher fired for using student’s nickname won’t get her job back.”

¹⁰ Walker, “’No political intent’: Brevard teacher ousted over use of student’s chosen name won’t return to class.”

¹¹ – ¹⁸ Ibid.

¹⁹ Geovany Dias and Gene Saladna, “’It’s been a whirlwind’: Dismissed Brevard County teacher speaks out,” WFTV, August 6, 2025.