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Va. teacher
objects to
gender policy
District places him
on leave for comments
Jordan Mendoza
USA TODAY
A Virginia school district placed a
teacher on paid administrative leave
after he spoke against a proposed pol-
icy that would have faculty refer to stu-
dents using pronouns based on what
aligns with the students’ gender iden-
tity.
Tanner Cross, a physical education
teacher at Leesburg Elementary
School, spoke out against the “Rights
of Transgender and Gender-Expansive
Students” policy May 25 at a Loudoun
County Public Schools board meeting.
Cross said the policy would go
against his religious beliefs and he was
“speaking out of love for those who are
suffering from gender dysphoria.”
He spoke of a “60 Minutes” episode
that featured a segment about young
people who identified as transgender
individuals, then changed their minds.
“It’s not my intention to hurt any-
one, but there are certain truths that
we must face when ready,” Cross said.
“I love all of my students, but I will nev-
er lie to them, regardless of the conse-
quences. I’m a teacher, but I serve God
first, and I will not affirm that a biologi-
cal boy can be a girl and vice versa be-
cause it’s against my religion, it’s lying
to my child, it’s abuse to a child and it’s
sinning against our God.”
“This isn’t just about a pronoun;
this is about endorsing an ideology.
The school favors certain beliefs, and
it wants to force Tanner to cry uncle
and endorse them as well. That’s
neither legal nor constitutional,
and neither was the school’s move
to place Tanner on leave.”
Tyson Langhofer
Attorney for physical education
teacher Tanner Cross
Two days after the board meeting,
Cross was sent a letter that he was be-
ing placed on paid administrative leave
for “allegations that you engaged in
conduct that has had a disruptive im-
pact on the operations of Leesburg Ele-
mentary School.”
The letter, signed by interim Assis-
tant Superintendent Lucia Sebastian,
was released by Cross’ attorney, Tyson
Langhofer.
In a May 28 letter to Sebastian,
Langhofer demanded that Cross’ sus-
pension be rescinded, that he be rein-
stated, that his suspension be removed
from his file and that Cross would be
protected from any retaliation.
“Public schools have no business
compelling teachers to express ideo-
logical beliefs that they don’t hold, but
it’s beyond the pale to suspend some-
one simply for respectfully providing
their opinion at a public meeting,
which is what such meetings are de-
signed for,” part of the letter to Sebas-
tian read.
“This isn’t just about a pronoun; this
is about endorsing an ideology. The
school favors certain beliefs, and it
wants to force Tanner to cry uncle and
endorse them as well.
“That’s neither legal nor constitu-
tional, and neither was the school’s
move to place Tanner on leave,” Lang-
hofer said in a statement.
Cross did not immediately respond
to USA TODAY requests for comment.
A Loudoun County Public School
spokesperson confirmed to USA TO-
DAY that Cross is still on leave.
The district has been subject to scru-
tiny by community members who say it
is pushing racial and LGBTQ ideas into
the classrooms, which has resulted in
an effort to recall six board members,
according to Fox 5 Washington D.C.
Space station’s robotic arm
survives hit from space junk
Rachael Joy and Christine Fernando
Florida Today
USA TODAY NETWORK
In what the Canadian Space Agency
is calling a “lucky strike,” the Interna-
tional Space Station’s robotic arm is
still functioning after a piece of space
junk smashed into it and left a small
hole.
“Seriously, this shows the threat of
orbital debris,” tweeted Gilles Leclerc,
director general of the Canadian Space
Agency, after the agency announced
the strike on Friday.
The Canadian Space Agency did not
say whether the debris was natural or
human-made.
The Canadarm2 is a 57.7-foot-long
robotic arm that was vital in assem-
bling the lab, according to NASA. The
iconic robotic arm is used to move sup-
plies, equipment and astronauts, as
well as to perform routine station
maintenance and “cosmic catches” of
vehicles visiting the ISS. It is part of
Canada’s contribution to the ISS.
During a routine inspection May 12,
robotic operators observed the hole in
the arm boom and protective thermal
covering, according to a statement
from the Canadian Space Agency last
Friday. After working with NASA to
take detailed images of the impact, the
agencies concluded the hole is about 5
mm in diameter.
Despite the impact, the arm’s per-
formance is unaffected, according to
Personnel on Iran’s navy support ship Kharg react after the vessel catches fire. ASRIRAN.COM VIA AP
Iran’s largest warship, the
Kharg, catches fire, sinks
‘Training ship’ incident
comes amid other blasts
ASSOCIATED PRESS
TEHRAN, Iran – The largest war-
ship in the Iranian navy caught fire and
sank Wednesday in the Gulf of Oman
under unclear circumstances, semiof-
ficial news agencies reported.
The Fars and Tasnim news agencies
said firefighters failed to save the sup-
port warship Kharg, named after the
island that serves as the main oil ter-
minal for Iran.
The blaze began about 2:25 a.m.,
Fars said. The vessel sank near the Ira-
nian port of Jask, about 790 miles
southeast of Tehran on the Gulf of
Oman near the Strait of Hormuz, the
narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf.
Photos circulated on Iranian social
media of sailors wearing life jackets
evacuating the vessel as a fire burned.
State TV and semiofficial news agen-
cies referred to the 679-foot Kharg as a
“training ship.” Fars published video of
thick black smoke rising from the ship
early Wednesday.
USA TODAY ❚ THURSDAY, JUNE 3, 2021 ❚ 5A
Space debris damaged the Canadarm2 on International Space Station.
PROVIDED BY NASA/CANADIAN SPACE AGENCY
the Canadian Space Agency. In fact, the
Canadarm2 is in the middle of a big job
positioning its “robotic hand,” called
Dextre, in order to replace a faulty pow-
er switchbox.
The space agency said more than
23,000 objects the size of a softball or
larger are tracked 24/7 to avoid colli-
sions. Smaller objects, including rock or
dust particles and flecks of paint from
satellites, are too small to be monitored.
“Space can be a harsh and unforgiv-
ing environment for the robots and hu-
mans that explore it: the hazards are
many, from massive temperature
swings to radiation and orbital debris,”
the Canadian Space Agency said.
Satellite photos from Planet Labs Inc.
analyzed by The Associated Press
showed the Kharg off to the west of Jask
on Tuesday. Satellites from the U.S. Na-
tional Oceanic and Atmospheric Ad-
ministration detected a blaze at the site
of the Jask that started just before the
time of the fire reported by Fars.
The Kharg is one of a few vessels in
the Iranian navy capable of providing
replenishment at sea for its other ships.
It also can lift heavy cargo and serve as a
launch point for helicopters. The war-
ship, built in Britain and launched in
1977, entered the Iranian navy in 1984 af-
ter lengthy negotiations that followed
Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Iran’s navy typically handles patrols
in the Gulf of Oman and the wider seas,
while the country’s paramilitary Revo-
lutionary Guard operates in the shal-
lower waters of the Strait of Hormuz and
the Persian Gulf. In recent months, how-
ever, the navy launched a slightly larger
commercial tanker called the Makran it
converted into serving a similar func-
tion as the Kharg.
Iranian officials offered no cause for
the fire. But the blaze comes after a se-
ries of mysterious explosions that be-
With more stuff going to space,
there’s also more trash in space – nearly
6,000 tons – and the likelihood of im-
pacts are increasing.
NASA says low-Earth orbit is a space
junkyard filled with millions of pieces of
rockets, spacecraft and satellites flying
at speeds up to 18,000 miles per hour.
All that junk orbiting Earth poses a
significant safety risk to people and
property in space and on Earth.
In 2020, the International Space Sta-
tion had to redirect three times to avoid
space debris. Before that, the last time a
move was necessary was in 2015. This
year, there have been a couple of close
calls before the collision in May.
gan in 2019 targeting ships in the Gulf of
Oman. The U.S. Navy later accused Iran
of targeting the ships with limpet
mines, timed explosives typically at-
tached by divers to a vessel’s hull.
Iran denied targeting the vessels,
though U.S. Navy footage showed Revo-
lutionary Guard members removing one
unexploded limpet mine from a vessel.
The incidents came amid heightened
tensions between the U.S. and Iran after
then-President Donald Trump unilater-
ally withdrew America from Tehran’s
nuclear deal with world powers.
In April, an Iranian ship called the
MV Saviz believed to be a Revolutionary
Guard base and anchored for years in
the Red Sea off Yemen was targeted in
an attack suspected to have been car-
ried out by Israel. It escalated a year-
slong shadow war in Mideast waters be-
tween the two countries.
The sinking of the Kharg marks the
latest naval disaster for Iran. In 2020
during an Iranian military training exer-
cise, a missile mistakenly struck a naval
vessel near the port of Jask, killing 19
sailors and wounding 15. Also in 2018, an
Iranian navy destroyer sank in the Cas-
pian Sea.