February 2026 — Ed Reporter Monthly Email Edition

Education reformers have been struggling for decades to bury the history of Western Civilization and their efforts have borne more fruit in recent years. Now, the most elite of elite American universities, Harvard, has banished Western history courses altogether in favor of a fantasy narrative that includes crediting barbarian invaders with culturizing the Western world via the Silk Road.

Western Civilization, or Western Civ as it is more commonly known, documents the history of civilization beginning with the ancient Greeks and Romans and continuing through our present age. It encompasses all areas of human development, including culture, politics, invention, and innovation.

Last December, the final death knell for Western Civ at Harvard was sounded when Professor James Hankins ended his 40-year career there as a specialist on the subject of the Renaissance and Western history in general. In a first-person article in Compact, an online magazine founded in 2022, Hankins wrote:

• My four decades of experience at one of the world’s leading universities have given me a unique vantage point to trace the replacement of Western history by global history. This change is part of the reason why the younger generation finds itself in a state of moral and intellectual disorientation.

He further warned about the unfairness of DEI policies, explaining that one of the catalysts for his exit from Harvard was the university’s discrimination against white males. He described how an excellent student was denied admission in the fall of 2020 because admitting a white male “was not happening.” He wrote of another student:

• [In 2021] a certifiably brilliant undergraduate I had tutored, who was literally the best student at Harvard—he won the prize for the graduating senior with the best overall academic record—was rejected from all the graduate programs to which he applied. He too was a white male.

A Newsweek article about Hankins’ departure observed that, “while advocates have pushed universities to work to increase diversity, critics have argued that the policies are unfair to others.” The article noted that such tactics have incurred the ire of President Trump and that his administration has targeted DEI programs in colleges and universities.

Writing in the National Association of Scholars’ (NAS) online newsletter, CounterCurrent, columnist Kali Jerrard observed that Hankins “is the ninth history professor to have left the university, either through retirement, death, or departure for other universities, exposing an alarming fact: Harvard has not promoted nor hired a historian in a Western field since 2012.” She further wrote that Hankins denied leaving Harvard for political reasons, but that he remains “very deeply committed to the revitalization of Western history, the study of Western civilization, which is not something I can do at Harvard.”

Rather than abandon his storied career altogether, Hankins has moved to the University of Florida’s Hamilton School for Classical and Civic Education, where Western Civ appears to have a more nurturing home. He’s also the author of a newly published book, The Golden Thread: A History of the Western Tradition. Vol. 1, that teaches what he says he can no longer teach at Harvard. Hankins’ new book may over time spread its important knowledge far and wide.

Replacing Western history

A 2011 article by NAS’s Peter Wood titled The Vanishing West, sounded the alarm about the loss of Western Civilization courses in American universities starting as far back as 1964. He wrote that by 2010, Western Civ “had disappeared entirely as a requirement at these institutions and was available in some less emphasized form at less than a third of them.”

When NAS delved into the issue, it found that “world history” had taken the place of Western Civ. It further found that American history has also become a rarity even as the proliferation of world history continues to rise. President Trump lamented this loss during his first term, and was a staunch supporter of the 1776 Project that was started in 2018 to restore factual history and civics.

Wood’s article noted: “Clearly, many of those who will eventually assume positions of opinion leadership in our society as teachers in our schools, or as participants in public life, are no longer learning about their civilization’s great story, its triumphs, its vicissitudes, and its singular role in transforming the human condition.” He then posed the rhetorical question: “What is the future of a civilization whose heirs have largely become blinded to its history?”

In tandem with world history is “multiculturalism,” which has been taught for decades in American schools from K-12 through the university level. Describing multiculturalism as “inadequate,” Wood pointed out that it “leaves students ill-equipped to understand the context of their own lives or the world around them. Western Civilization is so interconnected with and influential in the rest of the world that students who are left with scant knowledge of it can achieve at best only a superficial understanding of the larger picture.”

Phyllis Schlafly often warned against the teaching of multiculturalism. In 1991, for example, Phyllis wrote that multiculturalism and cultural diversity “can better be described as divisive, destructive, and false…. It should not be the mission of the public schools to promote ethnic separatism and thereby heighten racial tensions….”

In the same column, Phyllis quoted historian Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., as stating that the “underlying philosophy” [of multiculturalism] is that “ethnicity is the defining experience for most Americans, and that a main objective of public education should be the protection, strengthening, celebration, and perpetuation of ethnic origins and identities.”

Anyone with even modest powers of observation couldn’t help but recognize how prescient Phyllis was on this topic as she was on so many others. Schoolchildren today are being pitted against each other in countless ways; perhaps in the name of multiculturalism, but more commonly under the guise of DEI, social justice, global education, and other monikers.

Western Civ not dead

The departure of Professor Hankins isn’t just a loss for Harvard, it symbolizes a shift in the focus of history that decenters the west and minimizes its profound influence in the world. Daniel McCarthy’s article on Creators.com quoted Professor Hankins as saying it has come to a point “where Western countries are literally put in their place as an ugly growth on the back side of Eurasia…. Mongol hordes aren’t the only protagonists of the new history, anyone who isn’t white qualifies.”

But while Western Civ may be seriously wounded, it is not dead. There are educational institutions at the university level, such as Hankins’ new home at the University of Florida, and the 182-year-old stalwart in the promotion of Western Civ and American history, Hillsdale College, which not only offers quality graduate and undergraduate degree programs, but also provides online courses and an impressive nationwide K-12 classical curriculum.

A number of other colleges incorporate Western Civ in online degree programs, such as the University of West Alabama, Keiser University, and DeVry University. Many Christian colleges also offer solid instruction in Western Civ, including Thomas Aquinas College and Grand Canyon University (GCU) Christian.

Additionally, there are organizations working to ensure that Western Civ continues to be taught. For example, National Endowments for the Humanities (NEH) is offering long-term endowments that are intended “to build the applicant organization’s capacity in research and teaching of Western civilization, American history and government, and civics.”

Another example is the NAS, a tireless promoter of Western Civ that offers a variety of books, articles, and other resources to aid in the dissemination of such knowledge. NAS’s Institute for the Study of Western Civilization has a physical campus in Cupertino, CA which offers a full slate of Western history classes with required texts, lectures, and languages. The institute also provides outreach efforts to secondary schools in the area.

Harvard in hot water

As for Harvard and the woke Ivy League, President Trump has been at odds with the university for many months, with billions of dollars in federal funding frozen early on by his administration and then partially restored following a judicial order. Trump’s issue with Harvard is similar to that of Professor Hankins, who contrasted the discrimination against exemplary white students with the treatment of former Harvard president Claudine Gay, who is black, and whose scholarship was found to be guilty of plagiarism. Yet she remains in good standing, employed by the university to the tune of nearly $1 million per year.

The Trump Administration’s clash with Harvard has resulted in more legal action and a fresh demand just this month that the university pay a $1 billion settlement. At a press briefing on February 5, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the president is frustrated with Harvard because the university has “dragged its feet” during months of negotiations.

Leavitt told a reporter from The Daily Signal: “They need to rectify the wrongs and the illegal behavior that took place on their campus over the course of the past several years under the previous administration. The president wants a justified deal to correct for the criminal behavior that took place on their campus.”

The alleged criminal behavior primarily refers to Harvard’s failure to enforce civil rights law by ignoring the harassment of Jewish and Israeli students on campus, among other civil rights violations.

The mainstream media has dogged the president over his battle with Harvard, calling it a “political barrage” of the university. The online news service masslive.com made the laughable argument that Trump’s efforts to restore some semblance of fairness to higher education after decades of leftwing dominance is merely a matter of “conservatives increasingly trying to influence academics and culture at colleges and universities.”

Masslive piled on with another thoroughly discredited assertion—that Trump’s push “is part of a master plan well-documented in Project 2025, a political initiative published by the Heritage Foundation in 2023 that has largely served as a blueprint for Trump’s second presidency.” This patently false statement flies in the face of the fact that the president has never embraced Project 2025 or endorsed it in any way. The truth is more likely that liberals know this, but they fear the project because it contains a wealth of common-sense ideas that many conservatives support.

Where it’s headed

Currently, several aspects of the Trump Administration/Harvard clash remain in litigation. In December, the administration appealed a court ruling that restored to the university nearly $3 billion in research funding. It’s possible that a negotiated settlement could ultimately result, but it’s also possible the case could end up in the U.S. Supreme Court.

A Hechinger Report overview of the Trump Administration’s impact on education during 2025 stated:

• The administration was especially forceful in the higher education arena. It used measures including antidiscrimination law to quickly freeze billions of dollars in higher education research funding, interrupting years-long medical studies and coercing Columbia, Brown, Northwestern, and other institutions into handing over multimillion-dollar payments and agreeing to policy changes demanded by the administration.

But while some Trump Administration prompted changes have been forthcoming, such as curbing DEI, many universities have continued their woke policies despite federal directives and under threat of loss of federal funding. Some schools simply change the policy names or move the responsibility to another department.

In January, The College Fix reported that Columbia University “became the latest higher education institution to fail to live up to its promise of ‘institutional neutrality.’” Columbia’s School of Journalism unnecessarily charged that the FBI raid on the home of a reporter occurred because the reporter was critical of President Trump. However, the reporter herself was not under investigation; the raid was related to a separate inquiry associated with “the leaking of national security documents, according to the Associated Press.”

Columbia also felt compelled to attack the defunding of National Public Radio, but as The College Fix pointed out, “the idea of institutional neutrality holds that entire departments and schools should not be weighing in on every political issue. Whether taxpayers subsidize National Public Radio does not affect the operations of Columbia University at all, nor do individual lawsuits brought by the president against news outlets.”

But the future of higher education and President Trump’s efforts to reform it, including the restoration of Western Civ and American History and civics courses, may not matter if students continue to enter college woefully unprepared.

As a January 20 article by Wight Martindale Jr. of Minding The Campus pointed out: “Any sensible humanities program must explore the past. But the problem is that today’s students can no longer read long texts. Yet the past was a written culture; documents and stories were written out. Over a very short period of time—25 years—traditional literacy has become rare.”

Unless and until genuine critical literacy education can be restored to K-12 classrooms, enabling children to think for themselves rather than being told what to think (see Education Reporter, January 2025), efforts to restore Western Civ and American History and civics to higher education may prove an exercise in futility.

In a Feb. 11 YouTube video, U.S. Education Secretary, Linda McMahon, reminds public school teachers that the June 2018 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Janus v. AFSCME allows them to avoid paying dues to the teachers’ unions no matter what state they live in. “Public employees, including teachers, cannot be required to join or pay a union as a condition of employment,” McMahon explains. “This [law] was a huge win for American workers. No employee should feel obligated to turn over their salary to a union that is bankrolling political causes…. If you choose to stay, that’s your call, but the point is, it’s your call.”

The secretary took the opportunity in her video to reemphasize the Trump Administration’s efforts to return the responsibility for education to the states and subsequently to parents. But some observers wonder if she may have had another reason for reminding teachers about the 2018 law.

For example, given that the teachers’ unions have proven themselves more radically leftist than ever, Trump’s education department may find it expedient to remind teachers that they are not required to fund these radical organizations with their paychecks.

A recent Fox News opinion piece observed: “Teachers unions like the National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) aren’t prioritizing educators or their students. They’re bloated bureaucracies more interested in politics than pedagogy. Take the NEA — less than 10% of its more than $400 million annual budget actually goes toward representing teachers in the workplace.”

As has been exhaustively reported for decades, the lion’s share of teachers’ union dues is spent on radical left political causes that have nothing to do with education. For example, teachers in Chicago, IL pay about $1,400 annually in union dues, according to The Center Square.com, but the Illinois Policy Institute reports that less than 20% of the union’s spending is actually used to support its members.

Education Reporter has described the unions’ radical behavior and policies for decades, particularly as conducted at their annual conventions. At last July’s NEA Representative Assembly (RA), union leadership ranted about “fighting Trump” and promoting “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” rather than discussing ways the attending teachers might improve their students’ dismal NAEP scores.

Anti-ICE activism

Earlier this month, the president of the Minneapolis chapter of the AFT, Marcia Howard, bragged that she and local elected officials have been part of “anti-ICE Signal chats.” Signal is an application individuals and groups can use to communicate with each other, allegedly with a high degree of privacy. Last year, President Trump’s cabinet members were accused of compromising national security on a Signal group chat, so how secure the app may be is anyone’s guess.

Be that as it may, the online We Got This Covered.com (WGTC) quoted Howard brazenly revealing that “elected officials and even ‘our bosses’ aren’t just sympathetic to anti-ICE activity, they’re actively involved.” She added: “Our bosses are in the Signal chats with us … Our elected officials are in the chats with us.”

WGTC observed that these revelations make it “crystal clear just how deep the [anti-ICE] coordination goes.” The article explained that Howard, an English teacher for 25 years, “played a prominent role during the 2020 riots in the city following George Floyd’s death. She is even described as a ‘steward’ of the George Floyd Square memorial area. She meets with local activists there every single morning.”

The article provides ample evidence that the head of the AFT’s Minneapolis chapter is highly invested in a coordinated political network of subversive activities that have nothing to do with teaching children English Language Arts.

Howard’s “leadership” is a perfect example of why Secretary McMahon’s caution to teachers about halting the payment of their dues to these radically political organizations is so apropos, especially now. The truth is that the teachers’ unions are little more than extensions of the far-left arm of the Democrat party.

Debunking the myths

One reason teachers may continue paying dues even if they resent the rising costs and/or disagree with their union’s political rhetoric is that they fear they must in order to keep their jobs, their salaries, and other perks of their employment. Teachers are often portrayed as underpaid and the overarching belief is that being part of a union is beneficial.

But an article in Frontpage Magazine paints a different picture. “Teachers may not get rich, but they live comfortably middle-class lives,” the article shows. “Plus, teachers get to retire a couple of years earlier than other workers.” Frontpage explained that the public’s perception of teacher compensation is consistently too low—by about 50%, or about $22,000 as of the 2021-22 school year.

The organization Just Facts reported that during the 2021-22 school year, “the average school teacher also received another $34,090 in benefits (such as health insurance, paid leave, and pensions), which brings the total annual compensation to over $100,000.” But the question remains, would this be true without the influence of the unions?

Frontpage charges that while the teachers’ unions claim they are needed to raise the “peon’s wage” of educators, various researchers showed between 2009 and 2011 that “Teachers in non-collective bargaining districts actually earned more than their union-protected peers….” A 2018 study by University of California San Diego professor Augustina Pagalayan reported that “collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) do not improve teacher pay.”

Another myth the unions promote is that it is difficult for teachers to leave. Those who wish to quit can do so, but only during brief time periods. As Frontpage explains, the unions often “obscure” these “windows” of opportunity wherein teachers can make their exit, and thus many become “sucked in for another year.”

Although teachers’ unions muddy the waters as to when the windows of opportunity occur for withdrawal, interested teachers are getting the message that escape is possible. A 2025 article on Education Next provides advice and guidance to educators wishing to opt out. (See also Education Reporter, November 2024.)

In November 2023, longtime union watchdog, Mike Antonucci, posted an article on The 74.com describing how the California Teachers’ Union (CTA), the most influential in the state, had lost its edge in recruiting new teachers. Antonucci explained that during the five-year period following the Janus ruling in 2018, the CTA lost twice the number of new union members, from 18,000 new non-member teachers in 2019 to 36,000 new non-member teachers in 2023. And this was in addition to the nearly 3,000 teachers who dropped their memberships during the same time frame.

But teachers need not surrender their union memberships without having an acceptable alternative. For example, a viable option is one of the independent, non-partisan teachers’ associations such as KEYTA, the Keystone Teachers Association, which offers membership to teachers in Pennsylvania and Delaware.

KEYTA’s website notes that more teachers are deciding they don’t want to be associated with their large, expensive, partisan, three-tiered, bureaucratic unions and are looking to join smaller local associations. The website states:

• Over the past few years, the teachers unions have lost large groups like the Memphis-Shelby County Education Association in Tennessee, the Carmel Teachers Association in Indiana, the Santa Rosa Professional Educators in Florida, and the 20,000-strong bargaining unit of the Clark County Education Association in Nevada. These groups now operate their own local-only teachers unions.

These types of organizations not only appear to offer viable options for teachers, but also fall in line with the Trump Administration’s vision of reinstating local control of public education.

Rescuing teachers

Frontpage reports that the NEA’s financial filing covering the 2022-23 school year “shows that the union spent $10 million more on politics and lobbying than it did on representing its members….” This is hardly the type of representation many teachers rightfully expect for the dues they are required to pay.

It’s time to rescue more teachers. Education Secretary McMahon’s next video might consist of a tutorial on how union members can successfully cancel their memberships, and publicize the options that are available with which to replace them.

Across the country, teachers and school officials are inciting their students to stage walkouts and take to the streets in protest of federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). While doubtless some kids object to the deportation of illegal alien criminals due to what they see and hear on mainstream news, social media, and at home, others are neutral or hold opposing views. The question many parents are raising is whether schools should be fomenting one-sided political activism by allowing and even encouraging their children to leave school premises in order to protest.

Most parents want their children in the classroom learning academics rather than engaging in political activism outside the classroom on behalf of causes with which they may not agree. MEA WorldWide Digital News (MEAWW) reported on Feb. 14 that parents and other family members are complaining that “using school authority and resources to push students into political activism crosses a line, raising concerns about safety, education, and parental consent.”

For example, MEAWW included a photo of high school students in Austin, TX, protesting ICE while walking along the shoulder of a major thoroughfare. Parents may rightfully be concerned for their children’s safety in such a circumstance.

On Feb. 15, Breitbart News published a compilation of videos, photos, and articles of student protests from across the country that appeared primarily on X. Breitbart prefaced the posts with this observation: “Students across America are increasingly being injured, arrested, and seen engaging in violence as teachers and school administrators continue to encourage children to walk out of class to mount marches off school grounds to protest Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).”

The article noted that for the most part, these protests “are not spontaneous, but are instead being organized by socialist groups and teachers’ unions. And these groups are using kids to push their political agenda.”

As described in McMahon to Teachers, a recent overt example of teachers’ union involvement in anti-ICE activism is the admission of Minneapolis AFT President, Marcia Howard, that she participates in Signal chats with local politicians and activists to organize against ICE.

The Breitbart reposts were eye witness reports from observers or victims of the mayhem and violence often perpetrated by student protesters. They show bystanders being hit by rocks, bottles, shoes, and one witness was struck by a megaphone. Some individuals reported being punched. And some student protesters have themselves been injured; others have been arrested for assaulting police.

One subscriber on X emphasized that “kids walking out of class to protest ICE isn’t [from the] grassroots. It is being organized by groups like the National Education Association, one of the largest teachers’ unions in the US.” The post included the photo of an NEA EdAction flyer encouraging teachers to take action against ICE.

School choice proponent Corey DeAngelis reminded his followers on X of the NEA’s New Business Item (NBI) 63 adopted by the union at its 2025 annual convention last July. The NBI reads in part:

• NEA opposes Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) kidnapping of student leaders and supports students’ right to organize against ICE raids and deportation…. NEA will use existing media platforms to organize and join actions with other unions, communities, immigrant rights, and civil rights organizations in support of defending students’ rights to protest.

The incendiary tone of NBI 63 is evident; that any “student leaders” have been “kidnapped” by ICE is unsubstantiated and obviously intended to inflame emotions among the union’s rank and file.

MEAWW further pointed out that parents in increasing numbers are turning to social media “to express frustration after learning their children were encouraged or required to participate in anti-ICE protests during school hours.” The article described an incident involving a father who confronted school officials after his child “was forced to attend a protest without parental permission.” According to this dad, the school threatened to expel his child after he posted online about the teacher-instigated protest.

In Seattle, students were permitted to walk out of school to protest ICE, but they were not allowed to participate in a parade during school hours to celebrate the Seattle Seahawks Super Bowl victory. And some schools, including in red states like Florida and Texas, are telling students these protests are “required.”

So, what can concerned parents do to protect their children from school-supported and/or-initiated political activism? One solution may be to encourage state officials to penalize schools that sponsor such activities by withdrawing state funding. Texas Governor Greg Abbott voiced this option when he warned that Texas schools promoting ICE walkouts “could face funding penalties.”

Abbott reportedly chided public school superintendents, principals, and educators, reminding them that they “are responsible to ensure students remain in class unless parents explicitly approve absences.” Other governors, at least in red states, should be encouraged to issue similar warnings and be prepared to take action.

On January 30, the Trump Administration announced the end of all direct and indirect funding “of abortion, DEI, and gender ideology” in a “historic expansion of the Mexico City policy.” Vice President J.D. Vance gave advance notice of these changes in a speech during the annual March for Life in Washington, DC on January 23. According to a report by the Center for Family & Human Rights (C-Fam), the new rules “close funding loopholes in previous versions of the policy” and place “new, extensive funding restrictions related to gender ideology and DEI.” Vance emphasized that, unlike during the Biden Administration, the federal government will no longer “promote radical gender ideology; it’s our job to promote families and human flourishing.” C-Fam explains that the new policies “are comprehensive in nature, cite federal and state law, Supreme Court opinions, and executive orders as the basis of their legality, and are expected to withstand legal and Congressional challenges.” The new rules ban gender transitioning procedures and prohibit “all promotion of gender ideology, including through lobbying, education, public campaigns, drag queen shows, or any other means.” U.S. organizations that administer hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign aid and were previously exempt from presidential pro-life restrictions, “are now required to pledge that abortion, DEI, and gender ideology will be purged from any overseas program or activity, including for non-U.S. funds.”

In a move partially attributed to the November 2025 HHS report labeling the evidence for transgender surgeries on minors as weak at best, the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) now recommends against such surgeries until minors reach the age of 19. The Washington Stand reported that the ASPS, with more than 11,000 physician members, in early February became “the first major medical organization to oppose gender transition for minors….” The organization attributes its decision to “recent publications reporting very low/low certainty of evidence regarding mental health outcomes,” “emerging concerns about potential long-term harms and the irreversible nature of surgical interventions,” and “insufficient evidence demonstrating a favorable risk-benefit ratio.” Although once a supporter of such surgeries, the ASPS began modifying its position in 2024, citing the U.K.’s Cass Review as one reason. (See Education Reporter, June 2025.) The ASPS explained that this review, as well as the HHS report, “have contributed to a clearer understanding of potential harms, while also highlighting limitations of the available evidence, including gaps in documenting long-term physical, psychological, and psychosocial outcomes.” Many physicians, parents, and observers believe it’s about time top mainstream medical associations begin recognizing biological realities supported by “available evidence,” which the ASPS cites in its new position statement. The Washington Stand noted that the new position taken by the ASPS “is significant because its members are the physicians called upon to carry out gender transition surgeries, which are the most invasive, permanent, and harmful type of gender transition procedures.”

The New York Post reports that the Woodbridge High School in Virginia suspended 303 teens who skipped class to attend an anti-ICE protest earlier this month. The school suspended the teens for three days after they reportedly “stormed off campus” to participate in the protest. The Post reported that Principal Heather Abney, Ph.D., announced the suspensions to parents in a letter explaining that while students are allowed to “voice their opinions on issues ‘important to them,’ they violated district rules by leaving campus without permission during school hours.” After the protest, most of the students reportedly went home rather than return to class, but others allegedly went to a nearby shopping center and a few returned to campus where they caused a disturbance. The protest was not sanctioned by the Prince William County Public Schools, and “eventually spilled off school grounds and onto the streets, forcing local police to manage traffic and oversee the hundreds of rebel students involved.” While many observers, commenting on the Post story and similar reports, said students likely took advantage of the protest to get out of class, a few asked the pertinent question: “Who mobilized [these] kids? Any adults involved should be prosecuted!” Indeed, while the materials announcing follow-up protests all appear to be student-initiated, thoughtful observers should question who the “organizers” are and who is financing them. As one commenter asked: “How about the rest of the story?”

Originally posted at The College Fix, February 20, 2026. Reprinted by permission

Teacher is accused of telling students he is ‘actually a woman’ who ‘likes boys,’ turns into a wolf at night.

Following a complaint letter from the Liberty Counsel on behalf of several parents, an elementary school in a district that serves military families in North Carolina has fired a teacher who identifies as a “trans wolf.”

CBN reports concerned parents had asked Liberty Counsel to assist with the “confused and terrified” kindergarten and pre-K students at Mildred B. Poole Elementary School, part of the Department of Defense Education Activity, or DoDEA, district.

In a February 9 “demand” letter, Liberty Counsel alleged the “male, trans-identified” substitute teacher/teacher’s aide had “engaged in disturbing behavior” for about a year, which included wearing “feminine” clothes, a dog collar with “fetish tags,” and a tail.

The teacher also was accused of telling kids he “turns into a wolf at night,” that “he is ‘actually a woman’ who ‘likes boys,’” and that he required students to refer to him by some of his “wolf” names. Some of these names included “Roxxanne Wildheart,” “Captain Roxxie,” and “savagebeastqueen.”

Other accusations included:

• After allegedly being reprimanded for wearing a tail, the teacher commented on social media “If I had a tail, I stg [swear to God]. Like an actual one, not a fake one like the ones I’m not allowed to wear to work anymore because people wanna be straight up pearl clutching bitches about it for no reason.”
• A student told her mom she was worried the teacher was “going to come eat [her]” because he told everyone “again” that he turns into a wolf at night.
• The teacher wore “black fishnet stockings, tights that are “shredded” or have holes in them, black miniskirts, [and] black combat boots” (in addition to the dog collar with fetish tags).

The letter also pointed to numerous examples of the teacher’s social media posts (many from his since-been-made-private Instagram account) which feature sexually suggestive and violent narratives and images.

At the end of January, Poole Principal Lisa McGee allegedly told two parents she “can’t do anything about how [the teacher] dresses, because there is no official dress code and because he is ‘transgender.’”

Liberty Counsel wanted the “immediate suspension” of the teacher and “removal from any contact with children” pending an investigation “which should result” in the teacher’s firing.

Liberty Counsel’s Mat Staver said the school district “must protect these impressionable children from this gross and disturbing behavior.” The letter had given a deadline of February 16 for a response or it would take “additional action.”

But news of the teacher’s termination was announced in a big way on February 20: Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, who has 1.8 million followers on X, posted that “The ‘Wolf’ was fired 2 weeks ago.”

The same day, Liberty Counsel received a letter from the Department of Defense Education Activity’s general counsel which said the district was “coordinating with the appropriate agencies to carefully review the situation,” but noted it had “severed the employment relationship with the individual referenced in [the L.C.] letter.”

Principal McGee did not respond to a request for comment from The College Fix, but in a Feb. 21 email, the Department of War Education Activity Communications Chief Jessica Tackaberry noted the district “does not tolerate this type of behavior” and that the teacher “has been barred from Fort Bragg.”

Dave Huber is associate editor of The College Fix. He has written about education, politics and entertainment for almost 20 years, including a stint at the popular media bias site Newsbusters. Dave was involved in public education for over a quarter century, and holds degrees from the University of Delaware. He currently is a graduate student member of the NAS.