Teacher Sues Over School's Policy on Transgender Students

Suit was filed this week in an Ohio federal district court by a middle school teacher who resigned after refusing on religious grounds to comply with the school's policy regarding transgender students.  The school required teachers to address students by their preferred names and pronouns. The complaint (full text) in Geraghty v. Jackson Local School District Board of Education, (ND OH, filed 12/12/20222), alleges in part:

2. The Constitution guarantees a freedom of thought that includes a freedom to differ.... 

3. The Constitution protects this freedom to differ, in part, by prohibiting the government from adopting and enforcing a set of approved views on these matters in America’s public schools.... 

4. Defendants have abandoned this guiding light and adopted one particular view on this subject: that a person’s subjective identity determines whether a person is male or female, not a person’s sex. Compounding their unlawful adoption of an orthodoxy in this area, they have created and implemented a Policy requiring teachers, including Plaintiff Vivian Geraghty, to mouth her own support of Defendants’ views by forcing her, as a condition of keeping her job as a public school teacher, to participate in the “social transition” of children in her class.

5. Ms. Geraghty has a different view of this fundamental matter, informed by her scientific understanding and her Christian faith....

7. Because no interest justifies the state’s treatment of Ms. Geraghty—indeed, the very nature of free speech, free exercise of religion, and freedom from state-enforced orthodoxy on fundamental matters condemns the state’s attempt to purge contrary views from its schools—she brings this Complaint for injunctive, declaratory, and compensatory relief.

ADF issued a press release announcing the filing of the lawsuit.

Suit Claims School's Restroom Policy Burdens Muslim and Christian Religious Beliefs

Suit was filed this week in an Ohio federal district court challenging a school district's rule change that allows transgender students to use restrooms and locker rooms that conform to their gender identity.  Plaintiffs, who identify as Muslims and Christians, claim, among other contentions, that the new rules violate their free exercise and equal protection rights, their parental rights and Title IX.  The complaint (full text) in Doe No. 1 v. Bethel Local School District Board of Educaton, (SD OH, filed 11/22/2022), alleges in part:

67. The [Muslim] Plaintiffs ... sincerely believe that Allah makes men and women in the womb as distinct and separate genders. Allah desires modesty and separateness between the sexes. Satan attempts to entice humans to change and disobey what Allah has created and desires, and believers are to stay true to Allah’s creation and commands....

68. Muslim parents are responsible for raising their children in the faith including its morals and values....  This is a fundamental part of the parents’ exercise of their own faith. The Board is imposing a substantial burden on the free exercise of that faith by placing the children in intimate facilities with members of the opposite biological sex....

79. [Seven of the] Plaintiffs ... are all active members of the Christian community.

80. For thousands of years, Judeo-Christianity has taught that their identity as people comes from God, who made human beings in his image—male and female. See, e.g., Genesis 1:26-28; Matthew 19:4-6. Therefore, a human being’s dignity comes from the image of God himself. And God’s fashioning of a human being as a man or woman at birth is a fundamental part of that dignity. One cannot impose on that dignity without transgressing the fundamental core of a Christian.

Fox News reports on the lawsuit.

11th Circuit: No Liability For Withdrawing Permission For Religious Group To Use After School Classrooms

In Chabad Chayil, Inc. v. School Board of Miami-Dade County, Florida, (11th Cir., Sept. 8, 2022), the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the district Court' dismissal of free exercise, equal protection and due process claims brought by a Jewish organization that ran a popular after-school Hebrew program for more than ten years using public school classrooms. In 2019, after a complaint and investigation of whether Chabad complied with the rules for use of school facilities without paying a fee, the Miami-Dade County superintendent withdrew permission for Chabad use of school classrooms. Chabad sued. The court held that plaintiff had not shown the elements necessary to assert liability against either the school board or the Inspector General's office that investigated complaints against Chabad.

School Policy On Treatment of Transgender Students Upheld

In Parents 1 v. Montgomery County Board of Education, (D MD, Aug. 18, 2022), a Maryland federal district court upheld Guidelines promulgated by Montgomery County, Maryland school officials on dealing with transgender and gender non-conforming students.  Parents particularly challenge the portion of the Guidelines that advise school personnel not to disclose a student’s gender identity to their parents without the student’s consent, especially when the student has not yet disclosed their gender identity to their parents, or if the student either expects or knows their parents are unsupportive. Plaintiffs contend that this violates their parental rights protected by the due process clause of the 14th Amendment. The court said in part:

My review of the Guidelines reveals that the Plaintiff Parents’ argument is based on a selective reading that distorts the Guidelines into a calculated prohibition against the disclosure of a child’s gender identity that aims to sow distrust among MCPS students and their families. In reality, the Guidelines instruct MCPS staff to keep a student’s gender identity confidential until the student consents to the disclosure out of concern for the student’s well-being, and as a part of a more comprehensive gender support plan that anticipates and encourages eventual familial involvement whenever possible....

The court concluded that the Guidelines are subject only to rational basis review. It went on to say that even if it were to apply strict scrutiny, the Guidelines would still be upheld because the state's interest in safeguarding a minor's physical and psychological well-being is compelling. The court also dismissed various claims under Maryland law. WTOP News reports on the decision.