Daniel Bethencourt

Detroit Free Press

Vagina. It's a noun describing female anatomy that caused such outrage in the Michigan Legislature in 2012 that a legislator was blocked from speaking after using it.

Now, a substitute teacher says using it got her fired from a Battle Creek middle school after she said it in an art history lecture — though administrators rejected that claim and say there were other policy issues that they can't specify.

Allison Wint, who had been teaching art at Harper Creek Middle School since January, says she was speaking about a broader topic of controversy in art when she held up reproductions of paintings by Georgia O’Keefe, some of which have been seen as erotic.

At some point, Wint remembers saying: “Imagine walking into a gallery when (O’Keefe) was first showing her pieces, and thinking, ‘Am I actually seeing vaginas here, am I a pervert? I’m either a pervert or this woman was a pervert.’ ”

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She was hoping to have a thoughtful dialogue with a class of about two dozen eighth-graders on Thursday — but school officials have said her lesson ran afoul of policies. Through the course of the lecture, she went on to use the word vagina “maybe 10 times,” she said. “But it was never in a vulgar capacity.”

In response, Harper Creek Superintendent Rob Ridgeway told the Free Press on Wednesday that Wint was actually fired for veering from the curriculum and not informing the principal beforehand that she would be discussing controversy in art. She was also fired for other policy violations that he declined to detail, he said.

"She was not terminated due to uttering the word 'vagina,' " Ridgeway added. And in a statement he noted: "We do not shy away from controversial issues...We work very diligently to ensure that all students, staff and contracted personnel are treated fairly with respect and privacy."

In June 2012, State Rep. Lisa Brown, voting against the abortion regulations, told supporters of a bill at the time: "I'm flattered you're all so interested in my vagina. But no means no," referencing the proposal. She was silenced from speaking about any issues for the rest of the final day of that legislative session.

Wint told the Free Press she expected the students to giggle, which they did. But by the end of the class, she says the dialogue seemed productive.

“I thought if I used a euphemism, that would make it into a joke,” she said. “And I don’t think that’s a word you should be afraid of.”

The school’s principal, Kim Thayer, apparently was not amused. The next day, Friday, she says she approached Wint before class and said that she had used the word “vagina … without previous approval."

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“She said there are a thousand other ways to teach controversy, and that it was inappropriate,” Wint recalled.

Thayer asked whether Wint could remove her belongings and leave the school within one hour. Now Wint is looking for a new job.

“I was really invested in those kids,” Wint says. “And I miss them a lot.”

School officials initially told the TV station WWMT that teachers must get approval before discussing reproductive health, and provided a matching page from a school policy guidebook.

“Being afraid of the word … creates an aura of shame around the body part," Wint said.

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And Wint notes that her contract as a substitute teacher meant that she could be let go for virtually any reason.

She says she has never been disciplined at the school before. The most serious trouble she can remember came after she hung a sign behind her desk made by one of her students. The sign read “Marriage is about love, not gender.” She said the principal told her to take the sign down.

Contact Daniel Bethencourt: 313-223-4531 or dbethencourt@freepress.com. Follow on Twitter @_dbethencourt. Free Press staff writer Robert Allen and The Battle Creek Enquirer contributed reporting.