Some concerned parents are speaking out after finding out about a teacher in their northern Minnesota district.
After learning on social media that Mountain Iron-Buhl Public Schools (MIB Schools) in Mountain Iron, Minn., hired high school English teacher Adam Tritt, who says he fled Florida as a “political refugee” because of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ education policies, parents are sharing their concerns.
Teacher a ‘political refugee’ from Florida
MIB Schools hired Tritt in August 2025 as an English teacher for grades 7-9. Parents say they feel blindsided, and one would have vocalized opposition to Tritt’s hiring in August if the issues had been disclosed then.
“As a parent of two students at this school, I’m very concerned over the hiring of this individual. Either they didn’t fully check this person’s background, or they did, and hired him anyway. Either case is very disturbing. A simple Google search would have let the school know this person should not be anywhere near children. Schools need to do a better job looking into applicants. These are our children, after all,” said parent Desiree Koetzle.
Besides being an English teacher for grades 7-9, Tritt is the CEO of Foundation 451, a nonprofit he helped create three years ago in Florida.
“The mission of Foundation 451 is to get banned and challenged books directly into the hands of students, and to heighten awareness of the need for a plurality of ideas—especially in the arts and literature—to build a society that truly honors freedom, justice, and inclusivity,” the foundation’s website says. “We want all young people, especially those who have felt marginalized, to be seen, heard, and represented.”
“This Book is Gay” by Juno Dawson and “Gender Queer” by Maia Kobabe are among the controversial books promoted by Tritt’s nonprofit. As Defending Education notes, “Gender Queer” is known for its “graphic illustrations of sexual acts,” while “This Book is Gay” includes “passages that teach teens about anal and oral sex and how to use the gay hookup app Grindr,” Fox News reports.
“The main concern of the people responsible for our children’s education should be just that, their education,” said Christa Peterson, a concerned parent in the MIB Schools district. “The basics. Nothing more. Reading, math, history, science, etc. The individual that was hired at MIB has an agenda that goes far beyond the basics and that is just not acceptable. Children do not need to be exposed to the kind of material that he is trying to get in their hands. They are already bombarded daily with things they don’t need to see; schools don’t need to be adding to that.”
Defending Education documented some of Tritt’s social media activity in a 2022 article, including posts in which Tritt described the conservative parents organization Moms for Liberty as “Moms4Fascism,” called Gov. DeSantis “worse than Covid,” invited his students to participate in a protest “for LGBTQ+ rights,” and reposted an image referring to the Republican Party as “nuts.”
He also published an op-ed where he argued that “public schools are not for the children” and “not for the parents.”
“They are for the country and our democracy. A curriculum, based on literacy, numeracy, critical thinking, and rhetorical skill is necessary for the protection of our republic. If such a curriculum is not to the liking of a parent, there are private schools,” he wrote.
“If a parent does not like the secular nature of public education, there are religious schools. If there is a book a parent wishes a child not read, they may forbid their child to read it. But they must understand the public school is not made for the good of the individual student, and the parent is not the ‘customer.’ The customer is our nation. Our democratic republic.”
On a GoFundMe for his foundation, Tritt wrote that he moved to Minnesota so he could “continue to work for literacy and inclusion in Florida, Texas, and elsewhere much more safely and without fear of being sued by the state of Florida.
“This occurred as the Florida Department of Education opened its sixth investigation against me. We know, as a teacher, I would not have made it through this year with my job intact,” he said.
Alpha News reached out to leadership personnel at MIB Schools for comment but did not receive a response.
