Saying ‘Vagina’ in Class Gets Battle Creek Middle School Teacher Fired

A substitute teacher in Battle Creek says that she was fired recently for using the word "vagina" while teaching her class about art history.

Allison Wint, who was teaching at Harper Creek Middle School in Battle Creek, says she was teaching her class about controversy in art and held up reproductions of paintings by Georgia O’Keefe, some of which are considered erotic by some people.

According to WZZM-13, Wint says that she remembers at one point saying, “Imagine walking into a gallery when [O’Keefe] was first showing her pieces, and thinking, ‘Am I actually seeing vaginas here, am I a pervert? I’m either a pervert or this woman was a pervert.’ ”

She says that during the course of the lecture she used the word "vagina" roughly ten times, but never used it in a vulgar way.

The story has caught the attention of State Representative Lisa Brown, who was banned from speaking during the final day of the legislative session in June of 2012 after she said the word "vagina" while discussing abortion regulations. Brown took to Twitter to share Wint's story:

It turns out that using the word "vagina" in the classroom without approval from school officials is a violation of the school's policy. School policy states that teachers must get advanced approval when discussing any form of reproductive health, according to WWMT.

In a Facebook post Wednesday, Harper Creek Community Schools addressed the issue and some of the backlash they have been getting after Wint's firing. They claim that she was not fired for using the word "vagina" but because "The District did have concerns that the substitute teacher did not follow district art curriculum. These concerns, in addition to other failures, were the basis for the determination."