ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. — A former teacher at a K-8 school in St. Johns County is fighting back after he says he was forced to resign due to his gender.
In a civil rights complaint to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, 23-year-old Shepard Scalf argues he was pushed out of Patriot Oaks Academy because the district incorrectly assumed he was transgender.
Shana Knizhnik, one of Scalf’s attorneys with the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation, says Scalf is not transgender — he’s intersex.
“Mr. Scalp is intersex, which is an umbrella term for a wide variety of differences in anatomy and reproductive physical traits that do not fit binary expectations associated with male or female bodies,” Knizhnik said. “So we have brought a challenge to that firing under Title Seven of the Civil Rights Act in the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.”
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According to Scalf’s EEOC filing, he was only employed as a Language Arts teacher with the school for roughly three weeks before he was called in for an “emergency meeting” that took place on Aug. 29, 2025. There, he was faced with a choice: accept a probationary leave or submit his resignation.
The EEOC filing states that they have reason to believe that this may have come after a parent mistakenly identified Scalf as transgender.
The same document says Patriot Oaks Academy Principal Drew Chiodo referred to Scalf’s performance as “exemplary.”
“There was no merit-based reason for his firing, and in fact, it became clear that the principal did not want to do this,” Knizhnik said. “He started the meeting in which he was essentially forced to let Mr. Scalp go by stating that there was no real merit-based reason for his being forced to do so, but he was ordered to fire Mr. Scalf by the superintendent of St. Johns County School District.”
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Action News Jax obtained that letter from the St. Johns County School District. It reads:
Dear Shephard Scalf:
Under Florida Statute 1012.335, as stated in the instructional personnel employment contract, “as a newly employed member of the instructional staff of the School Board, this initial annual contract shall be a probationary contract for a period of (1) year during which the Employee may be dismissed without cause or may resign without breach of contract.”
On behalf of the Superintendent, the District has elected to recommend to the Board to dismiss you from employment within the St. Johns County School District. Effective today, you will be placed on leave with pay until the School Board meeting scheduled on Tuesday, October 14, 2025, at 4 PM when the Board will vote to take final action on your employment.
Sincerely,
Mr. Drew Chiodo
Principal, Patriot Oaks Academy
Cc: Dr. Brennan Asplen, Superintendent of Schools
Wayne King, Deputy Superintendent for Human Resources
Parker Raimann, Director for Instructional Personnel
Despite Florida being an at-will state, Knizhnik says that does not trump federal or state anti-discrimination laws.
“Intersex people like Mister Scalph face discrimination throughout our society due to a lack of understanding and ignorance, and the fact that the school simply rushed to take action against him because of that misunderstanding is extremely frustrating,” Knizhnik said. “Now, it would be illegal for them to fire Mr. Scalf if he were transgender based on that reasoning, but the fact that they didn’t even care to ask him, that they simply assumed he was transgender and had no desire to determine whether, in fact, he has, as the statute in Florida states, ‘a medically verifiable disorder of sex development,’ that’s not a term that intersex people tend to use, but that’s the term that Florida law uses, and they didn’t care whether he actually fit that definition.”
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The filing states that, based on new-hire paperwork Mr. Scalf provided to the district, the district knew that Scalf was assigned female at birth, or at least that he had a female gender marker on his identification documents. On his first day of teaching, the document states that the school provided a placard for his classroom that read, “Mr. Scalf.”
Action News Jax reached out to the St. Johns County School Board and was informed that they do not comment on pending litigation.
In a statement to Action News Jax, Equality Florida wrote the following:
“Every Floridian deserves the freedom to work, contribute to their community, and support their family without fear of discrimination or harassment. Stories like this raise serious concerns about what happens when people are judged based on assumptions rather than their qualifications, character, or ability to do their job.
This case underscores the dangerous consequences of a culture that encourages people to scrutinize and police others based on how they look, sound, or are perceived. When suspicion and fear drive decisions, real people pay the price: students lose trusted educators, schools lose talented professionals, and communities become less welcoming for everyone.
Floridians should be judged by their qualifications, performance, and contributions, not by assumptions about their identity."
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