A Michigan middle school teacher who used the word “vagina” during art history class says she was fired after administrators got their knickers in a knot over the anatomical term.

Allison Wint, a substitute teacher in Battle Creek, said she showed her eighth-graders reproductions of flower paintings by Georgia O’Keeffe — which are allusions to female genitalia, the Detroit Free Press reported.

“Imagine walking into a gallery when (O’Keeffe) 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,’” Wint said she told the kids at Harper Creek Middle School.

Wint said she used the word “maybe 10 times” — but “never in a vulgar capacity.”

Georgia O’Keeffe’s “Lake George Reflection” can be viewed horizontally or vertically.Photo: AP)

But the school chief said Wint was axed for violating school policies by veering from the curriculum and not notifying the principal beforehand that she would be talking about controversy in art.

“She was not terminated due to uttering the word ‘vagina,'” Superintendent Rob Ridgeway told the Free Press, adding that she also committed other, unspecified policy violations.

“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,” he added in a statement.

Wint said she was unaware of the policy.

“If I had known about this policy, I would have never done it without approval,” she told WWMT.

Harper Creek Community Schools cited a section of the school handbook that requires teachers to get prior approval when discussing any form of reproductive health, the station reported.

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

At first, she said, the students giggled at her use of the word, but the dialogue seemed productive by the end of the class.

Wint said Principal Kim Thayer approached her before class the next day and said she had used the word “vagina … without previous approval.”

“She said there are a thousand other ways to teach controversy, and that it was inappropriate,” said Wint, who was told to pack up her belongings and leave within an hour.

“I was really invested in those kids,” said Wint, who told WWMT that she would not fight her termination. “And I miss them a lot.”

O’Keeffe, who died 30 years ago, is best known for her paintings of colorful, enlarged flowers — as well as Big Apple skyscrapers.

Despite repeated denials that her artwork was sexual, her floral renditions have been deemed to be representations of female genitalia.

FILED UNDER ART ,  MICHIGAN ,  SCHOOLS ,  TEACHERS