It’s been more than a year since a Brevard teacher was ousted for using a high school student’s chosen name without parental permission. The former teacher has since been OK’d by the state to return to the classroom, an arbitrator said she was wrongly reprimanded and the student — at the time, a senior also enrolled at Eastern Florida — has graduated.
Still, the case continues to drag on, now focusing on a second teacher’s job and teaching license.
In March 2025, a district investigation prompted by a parent’s complaint that teachers were “grooming” a student to “transition and be gay” kicked off at Satellite High, according to the investigation document. The goal: Determine if educators were using the then-17-year-old’s chosen name without parental permission.
In the end, the district determined that Melissa Calhoun, a then-AP English Literature teacher with more than 12 years of experience, had been using the student’s chosen name. She said she didn’t know the student didn’t have permission to go by that name and ceased using it upon learning the parents hadn’t given permission. While the district only recommended reprimanding her, Superintendent Mark Rendell opted not to renew her contract for the following year, with the district and school board citing concerns that she may have violated a 2023 Florida Board of Education rule that requires school districts to develop a form for parents to sign if their child goes by a name that deviates from their legal name.
Even after a Florida Department of Education committee cleared her to return to teaching on probation and an arbitrator determined the letter of reprimand issued to her was in violation of Brevard Federation of Teachers’ collective bargaining agreement, the district refused to rehire her because of what Rendell called “a clear participation in a student’s social gender transition without the required parental consent.”
Now, a second teacher who was investigated following the initial complaint and cleared by the district faces potentially losing her license.
The student’s parent did not respond to a request for comment when asked by FLORIDA TODAY, and has repeatedly declined to comment over the past year. FLORIDA TODAY is not identifying the parent to protect the identity of the student.
District investigates, clears second teacher in name case
Kerry Clapper, a fellow teacher at Satellite High, also came under investigation at the same time as Calhoun, with the student’s parent telling Satellite High Principal Courtney Lundy that Clapper had used the student’s chosen name “for years.”
Still, Clapper was cleared by the district. The investigation showed that, while the student sometimes wrote their chosen name on assignments and Clapper didn’t correct the behavior, Clapper said she never used the student’s chosen name. She also said she asked the student to stop writing their chosen name on work after the investigation began and Lundy clarified that only the legal name should be used.
Clapper also expressed confusion over how to find approved chosen names in FOCUS, the academic platform used by students, parents and teachers — a concern Calhoun also raised. While Clapper was aware of the Board of Education rule, the school had used a spreadsheet to track approved names when the rule first passed, and Clapper said she wasn’t sure what happened to it.
In the end, there was a “lack of clear evidence to substantiate and confirm the allegations that Ms. Clapper violated” the district’s policy on standards of ethical conduct or state statute, according to the investigation.
Education commissioner seeking suspension of teacher’s license
Despite Clapper being cleared by the district, Florida Education Commissioner Anastasios Kamoutsas is seeking the suspension of her license, though no hearing has been scheduled in her case.
On May 28, Florida Department of Education sent a letter to Brevard Public Schools, informing them that a complaint had been filed against Clapper and that an investigation would be opened against her. And in an August 2025 administrative complaint, Kamoutsas alleged that Clapper violated state statute by “repeatedly (referring) to (a) female student … by a name other than the student’s legally given first name without first obtaining written permission from the student’s parent(s) to deviate from the student’s given name.”
A hearing with the state’s Education Practices Commission has yet to be scheduled.
Parent: ‘NOT a one teacher issue’
Copious records from both teachers’ cases involve complaints from the student’s parent made to FLDOE, Rendell, school board members and Lundy. The parent, who made the initial complaint to the school in March 2025, repeatedly mentioned Clapper, saying in one email, “This is NOT a one teacher issue.”
Calhoun was the only teacher the district said had violated the 2023 Florida Board of Education rule, though Calhoun’s attorney, Mark Wilensky, noted in a post-hearing brief following her arbitration that Calhoun had engaged in conversations during which other teachers had referred to the student by their chosen name.
“She knew the student as (chosen name), and testified that the student was widely known by that name,” Wilensky said.
Over the course of the investigation, Calhoun and Clapper were both asked to meet repeatedly with Lundy and human resources staff for questioning. Two other teachers who the student’s parent “suggested” may have used the student’s chosen name denied doing so when Lundy asked, and there was “no testimony as to any further investigation regarding the parent complaint as to those two teachers,” Wilensky said.
While Clapper has remained quiet in the months since Kamoutsas said he plans to seek suspension of her license, with Brevard Federation of Teachers declining to comment on the situation, the records in Calhoun’s case show she said she did not mean to violate a rule by using the student’s chosen name. Additionally, Wilensky noted that Calhoun “did not consider the gender identification” in relation to the student’s chosen name, as “she knew people whose names did not seem to necessarily equate with gender.”
The 2023 Board of Education rule the district said Calhoun broke requires that districts must create a form for parents to fill out if their child wishes to go by “any deviation” from their legal name. Brevard’s form allows parents and guardians to request that an alternative name be used “by school personnel,” but it does not say anything about employees obtaining the consent from parents if a student wants to use another name.
The 2023 rule is based off language in House Bill 1069, which says “it shall be the policy of every public K-12 (school) … that a person’s sex is an immutable biological trait and that it is false to ascribe to a person a pronoun that does not correspond to such person’s sex.”
The 2023 name rule does not address pronouns. There are no rules that forbid teachers from using a preferred pronoun if asked to by a student.
Finch Walker is the education reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Walker at fwalker@floridatoday.com. X: @_finchwalker. Instagram: @finchwalker_.
This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Years later, dispute over use of Brevard student’s chosen name drags on
Reporting by Finch Walker, Florida Today / Florida Today
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
