Teacher Crosses Gender Line

A well-regarded, tenured suburban high school teacher's plans to undergo a sex change have landed her on paid administrative leave pending consideration of dismissal.

Dana Rivers says she wants her job back. Before she became Rivers, he was David Warfield, an award-winning teacher at Center High School in Antelope, Calif. Rivers legally changed her name and now has the appearance of a woman due to hormone treatments.

"My teaching ability is not going to be impaired," Rivers told a crowd of students and teachers, speaking in front of them as a woman for the first time. "ItÂ's going to be enhanced when I can be truly who I am."

A conservative legal group is leading the charge to have her fired.

The students, however, say man or woman, their favorite teacher belongs in the classroom.

"She had so much bottled up inside of her and hiding so much that now she can let it all out," said one student. "I think sheÂ's very pretty."

In a 3-2 vote, the school board placed Rivers on paid leave citing complaints that she discussed details of her sexuality with her students.

Center Unified School District board representative Ronald Hodges, Ph.D. — one of three members to vote against reinstating Rivers — told CBS This Morning Co-Anchor Thalia Assuras that not acting on the parental complaints would be a "breach of our responsibility to the district, to our students and to the community."

He said the board felt it would be in "the best interest of everyone" to review the situation while Rivers was on paid leave.

Representative Ray Bender, who voted in favor of Rivers continuing to teach at the school, said based on what he has seen, Rivers is, "the kind of teacher we need to keep."

While Bender agreed that there was a parental complaint at the board meeting, Bender said the very next speaker was her daughter, who contradicted what her mother said.

"This is a teacher that touched lives," Bender said.

Meanwhile, Hodges, the board's only African-American member, stands behind the board's discrimination policies.

"I can assure you that we have acted in the best interest of what the district has for our children," Hodges said, "and that we are trying to do the best we can to resolve this issue."