A transgender teacher at a Texas high school resigned Monday after a state legislator and a widely followed right-wing social media account demanded her firing over an online video where she discussed feeling supported by her students, NBC News reports.
Rosie Sandri, 33, stepped down from her position as a sophomore English teacher in the Dallas suburb of Red Oak after the online account Libs of TikTok, which frequently mocks LGBTQIA+ people, reposted one of her videos. The account, which has 4.3 million followers on X, lambasted Sandri and questioned whether she should be allowed to teach.
Sandri transitioned seven months ago and told NBC News that her colleagues and students initially supported her decision to live as a woman. She added that she never formally came out to her students, nor did she demand that they call her by a different name or pronouns.
Instead, she told NBC News that she urged students to call her by “whatever they were comfortable with.”
Sandri also began posting videos on TikTok, sharing her experiences with a meager 1,000 followers, according to the news organization.
On March 26, Libs of TikTok shared one of Sandri’s clips and called her out by her previous legal name — an act called “deadnaming” that members of the trans community consider offensive and a form of verbal harassment. The account also mocked her for “pretending to be a woman” and expressing the sentiment that she feels affirmed when her students use her female name and pronouns.
“Would you feel comfortable with this person teaching your kid?” Libs of TikTok tweeted.
Two days later, Texas Republican State Rep. Brian Harrison reshared the Libs of TikTok post, adding that he’s “demanding that this teacher be immediately terminated.”
After Libs of TikTok and Harrison went on the attack, Red Oak ISD and Sandri began receiving threatening emails and phone calls, NBC News reports. Sandri met with district officials and ultimately agreed it would be best if she left the school, according to the news outlet.
“When I signed that resignation, it felt like my dream was being taken away from me,” Sandri told NBC.
Meanwhile, Harrison took a victory lap, writing in a statement that he was “proud to have helped deliver this victory to protect Texas students.”
The online bullying of Sandri comes roughly a week after LGBTQIA+ activists and allies traveled to the Texas Capitol in record numbers to lobby lawmakers to protect their rights. Advocacy group Equality Texas is now tracking more than 200 anti-LGBTIA+ bills in the state legislature.
“We’re usually the first targets, and although these bills may be targeting us, the unintended consequences of those bills impact other communities just as much as they impact us,” Equality Texas interim CEO Brad Pritchett told the Current.
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This article appears in Apr 2-15, 2025.
