Teacher's trans comments set off firestorm, Education Department under scrutiny

WASHINGTON (TND) — During a U.S. Department of Education webinar, a teacher created a firestorm after saying this:

Some ways that we can show our support for trans and nonbinary students who, just to clean up that language, be more precise, we can be more accurate and be more inclusive. So, I would say, no, it's not women that produce eggs; it's ovaries that produce eggs. That's accurate, that's precise. We're acknowledging that not all women produce eggs, and also not all egg producers are women, for example. And we're teaching students that language matters."

Sam Long is a science teacher at Denver South High School in Colorado. Parents Defending Education President Nicole Neily joined The National Desk Tuesday to discuss Long's statement.

Neely said the controversy Long, whose LinkedIn profile describes him as "a Chinese-American, transgender science teacher doing national award-winning work on gender-inclusive curriculum and trans educator advocacy," has created is becoming more commonplace.

" ... these kinds of lessons are commonplace at this point across the country. And I feel like I am old enough to remember when biology teachers actually taught biology. But that being said, I also remember when English teachers also taught pronouns. And so 2022 is a strange year for education."

For Neely's full interview with The National Desk's Jan Jeffcoat, watch the video above.