Idaho’s 2023 Teacher of the Year is Karen Lauritzen.
Though her peers, students and superiors recognize the fourth-grade teacher’s amazing talents, Lauritzen received enough hate mail and threats that beginning next week, she’ll be teaching in Illinois.
Her offenses?
Lauritzen’s lesson plans included segments on African Americans and the United Nations and on FaceBook she “liked” a post for the expansion of LGBTQ+ protections.
In school, one lesson segment popular with students was the different kinds of food people eat around the world. 
In most countries — first-, second- and third-world — people routinely eat beetles, crickets, termites, ants, grasshoppers, and other such “bugs,” Lauritzen explained.
But instead of being praised for expanding their minds, Lauritzen was labeled a “socialist.”
Others accused the 21-year veteran of promoting “transgenderism,” for her personal support of those recently targeted.
And discussing Black Lives Matter? Clearly, only a left-wing activist can sympathize with the trials minorities face.
Instead of feeling celebrated for the esteemed award, Lauritzen said she felt pilloried by parents and citizens “questioning every decision I made,” according to a recent story in the Boston Globe.
So she left for what she hopes is a more tolerant environment.
