Stacy Adair, an award-winning Colorado teacher, says she fears for her job after being reprimanded for wearing a t-shirt that read «XX ≠ XY» to a professional development training event earlier this month. The shirt, which references biological sex chromosomes, prompted an anonymous complaint accusing her of spreading anti-transgender messaging. Adair, who was named teacher of the year at the 2025 Teacher Freedom Summit, said no one mentioned the shirt during the training, and she doubts many people understood its meaning. «I told one of my friends that yesterday about getting in trouble and she goes, ‘that’s math.’ I said, ‘well, no, it’s actually genetics,’» Adair said.
A week after the event, Adair was called into a meeting, given a questionnaire about why she wore the shirt, and instructed not to wear clothing with controversial messaging in the future. The reprimand has left her worried about heightened scrutiny and potential repercussions. Adair said she has long expected such a confrontation, especially after she helped challenge the influence of the teachers union in her district. In 2021, she helped topple two school board members backed by the union, which allowed the board to let the district’s contract with the union lapse. «It basically dictated how the administration could run the school district,» Adair said. «The union basically controlled the school district rather than the elected board.»
Adair noted that the school district has a policy against apparel that is political or «disruptive to the educational environment,» but she said she did not see her shirt as overtly political or disruptive, especially since no students were present at the training. She said she often wears shirts with factual messages, including a «Math facts» shirt when she met Secretary of Education Linda McMahon. «I just wear these shirts because they’re facts. I just feel like someone has to be stating the truth,» she said.
Ryan Walters, CEO of the Teachers Freedom Alliance, an organization advocating for alternatives to teacher unions, said Adair’s case is not isolated. «These are the types of teachers that when you talk to parents around the country, they go, ‘I want my kids in a teacher’s class like that.’ And yet you see the way that they’re treated by the districts,» he said. Walters argued that such incidents, multiplied across the country, have led to a lack of diverse viewpoints in schools and have allowed ideology to be pushed in classrooms, even in conservative states.
Adair said she has felt targeted since speaking out against the union, recalling a veiled threatening email from a local plumber after a school speech, which led to a police report. «You don’t mess around with the union. So, am I surprised? No. Yes, I’m afraid. I know this is the beginning of them coming after me,» she said. She acknowledged she has no evidence that the teachers union was behind the anonymous complaint, but she remains concerned about the future.