CHANDLER, Ariz. — “I never wanted her to be fired. I didn’t want her reputation to be ruined, I didn’t want her—I didn’t want anything bad to happen to her," a transgender student said about his now-former art teacher, Annella Krom.
Krom was fired by the Chandler Unified School district after refusing to accept a transgender student's art project on their "transgender journey," and other instances of bringing religion in the classroom.
The student in the center of the charges laid out by the school district, labeled "Student 1" in the document, talked exclusively with 12 News Tuesday.
"The only place I feel really accepted is at school," he said. However, there ended up being one exception from Annella Krom.
The student said he had Krom as an art teacher four times in the last few years. The two bonded over art, and at the end of his junior year, the student said he came out as transgender to Krom before officially coming out publicly.
"I told her because I trusted her, and she went back on that trust, obviously,” he said.
Krom’s now-deleted teacher profile page said she was “very flexible” and that she encouraged conversation and respectful discussion. But the district’s statement of charges against her paints a very different picture.
This year, an art project grabbed the attention of the school principal and district officials.
The student proposed focusing his art project on his transgender journey. The assignment had no restrictions on topics, but Krom rejected it. Documents provided by the school district said Krom would later admit to rejecting the paper on religious grounds.
The student then went to the counselor for help. The student praised the handling of the situation by the school administration. He said the principal was upfront and reacted quickly.
The teacher was told to grade the paper as she would any other student's assignment.
Just two days after receiving the direction, Krom would give the student a zero for his work on the project and send an email at 3 a.m. to the student and the principal.
The email told them her conscience would be violated and she could not give it a grade higher than a zero.
“I really didn’t know what to do. I sat helplessly,” The student said. "I was really just broken."
The statement of charges says in another email to the principal, Krom wrote "either this topic is the priority or the word of God is," later stating the situation is "a hill worth dying on."
Krom would stand by her convictions in a meeting weeks later. She stated that she understood the restrictions on sharing beliefs and religious views in the classroom, but she did not agree with it.
She allegedly stated she would break the rules if there was a faith conflict.
Krom was given a chance to have a hearing on her case, but she declined and was fired a few weeks ago.
The student involved said he just wanted to leave a class he felt uncomfortable with. While he respects Krom's beliefs, teachers have signed a contract on what they can do in class.
The student said his goal was never to make a statement about being transgender.
“There are moments where you can’t deal with it anymore. You can’t deal with being bombarded with other people’s opinions assuming you are a statement," he said. "I don’t exist to like to try to say something about gender. I am me, because I feel more comfortable being me."
We communicated with Annella Krom on Facebook multiple times trying to set up an interview. We informed the former art teacher of our interview with the student.
Despite a repeated back and forth, an on-camera interview was not accepted. A request for a phone interview or statement went unanswered.
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