When elementary school teacher Katie Rinderle read aloud the international, best-selling children’s book My Shadow is Purple to her fifth grade gifted class at Due West Elementary School in Cobb County, Georgia, she never suspected that she was risking her 10-year career. Less than a month later, the Cobb County School District gave Rinderle the choice to resign or be terminated for violating the district’s policies. She refused to resign. On May 5, she was told she would be terminated by the district, and she was issued her official notice of termination on June 6.

“Teachers are concerned that they will be subject to a complaint for simply teaching honestly about U.S. history,” said Deborah Menkart, executive director of Teaching for Change, a nonprofit organization dedicated to building social justice in the classroom and co-director of the Zinn Education Project.