Florida Teacher Placed on Leave for Using Gender-Neutral Title 'Mx' in Defiance of State Law

A Florida elementary school teacher at Talbot Elementary in Gainesville was placed on administrative leave after requesting students and staff address her with the gender-neutral title "Mx," which is pronounced "mix" and used as an alternative to gendered titles like Ms. or Mrs. Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier asserted that this request violates Florida's House Bill 1069, signed into law by Governor Ron DeSantis, which mandates that K-12 employees use personal titles and pronouns aligning with their sex assigned at birth and declares biological sex as immutable. Uthmeier directed Alachua County Public Schools to enforce the law and consider disciplinary action, warning that failure to comply could lead to legal liability for the district. The law also requires sex education to teach that biological sex is binary and unchangeable. The school district confirmed the teacher's administrative leave pending investigation but did not provide further details. This incident has sparked debate around the use of gender-neutral titles in schools and highlights growing tensions over gender identity issues in Florida's education system.