6-10-19 wla teacher forced to resign over teaching about female circumcision

A Fond du Lac Winnebago Lutheran Academy geography teacher has resigned after being given the option of resigning or being fired for  teaching about the global problem of female circumcision.    Twenty four year teaching veteran Daniel  Dettman says he resigned about three weeks ago because the school board determined the subject matter was inappropriate for his freshman geography class.   Dettman told WFDL news he talked about female circumcision in the context of discussing different cultures in the Middle East.  “I told the students it wasn’t going to be a pleasant thing to talk about but I told them why they did it, what they did.  Then afterward, a parent complained, and then eventually two others,”  Dettman said.  Dettman says he was suspended and the board decided the material he presented was inappropriate and that “they could not trust me anymore to pick appropriate subject matter and they asked me to resign.”   The ritualistic practice was the focus of an op-ed piece last December by Wisconsin Republican congressman James Sensenbrenner, who said he plans to introduce legislation to ban the act in the United States.   Last month the U.S. House passesd a resolution denouncing female genital mutilation as a violation of the human rights of a woman and girls and urges the international community and federal government to increase efforts to el9iminate the harmful practice.