Petition calls for removal of school board leaders and district superintendent
It took three weeks for parents to discover that a transgender middle school teacher in Florida confessed to a guidance counselor that the teacher was having “bad thoughts” of self-harm and shooting students.
Now parents are demanding answers, accusing the district of a cover-up, and petitioning Florida’s governor to remove certain members of the Hernando County School Board as well as the superintendent.
Ashlee Renczkowski, a biological male who presents as a female, is the teacher who allegedly made the comments while at the school on March 24.
Kerry Thornton is an assistant principal at Fox Chapel Middle School in Spring Hill, Florida, which is part of the Hernando School District.
According to a report filed with the Hernando County Sheriff’s Office by Fox Chapel School Resource Officer Brian Timothy, Thornton alerted Timothy the afternoon of March 24 that Renczkowski “had just made concerning statements about self-harm and then possibly making statements about shooting students.”
Thornton had visited Renczkowski in the classroom and asked how the teacher was doing, according to Timothy’s report. Renczkowski replied, “Not good, I’m having bad thoughts.” Thornton radioed for guidance counselor Kimberly Walby and brought Renczkowski to Walby’s office.
Social Media Triggers
In Walby’s office, Renczkowski spoke of “a social media post where people were talking negatively” about Renczkowski’s “sexual orientation,” according to Timothy. He also said that Renczkowski was triggered by social media posts critical of the “sexual orientation and lifestyle” of Renczkowski’s wife, Fawn Renczkowski, who also teaches at the school.
Thornton and Walby advised the school resource officer about Renczkowski’s comments.
Renczkowski told Walby about wanting “to shoot some students” because they weren’t performing to their ability, according to the police report. Walby then said Renczkowski recanted the statement. But Walby also “began to reiterate that she has short-term memory issues” and was “starting to second-guess the conversation” when it came to “details and the order of events,” according to Timothy’s report.
Renczkowski also admitted to owning three handguns.
