In Ohio, a former teacher has filed a lawsuit against the school she used to work for, claiming that she was forced to resign for refusing to use “preferred pronouns” when speaking to her students.
Fox News reports that the lawsuit was filed by the Alliance Defending Freedom on behalf of Vivian Geraghty, against the Jackson Memorial Middle School in Massillon, Ohio. The lawsuit claims that Geraghty and all other teachers were forced to take part in the “social transition” of any students who claimed to have “‘transitioned’ to a gender that was inconsistent with their sex.”
The lawsuit says that Geraghty, who refused to go along with such indulgences due to her Christian beliefs, was “ejected” by the school just two hours after she informed the principal, Kacy Carter, about her opposition to such practices.
“But as soon as Defendants found out that Ms. Geraghty had a religious basis for resisting their attempt to implement an orthodoxy, they forced her to resign,” the lawsuit states. “Within two hours of being notified that Ms. Geraghty had reservations about their approach to the issue on Aug. 26, without there ever being any complaint from a student or disruption of any school services, Defendants ejected her from the school.”
Geraghty then approached Monica Myers, the school’s Director of Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment; Myers told Geraghty that “she would be required to put her beliefs aside as a public servant.”
In a statement, ADF Legal Counsel Logan Spena said that the school’s actions were unconstitutional, saying that “no school official can force a teacher to set her religious beliefs aside in order to keep her job.”
“The school tried to force Vivian to recite as true the school’s viewpoint on issues that go to the foundation of morality and human identity, like what makes us male or female, by ordering her to personally participate in the social transition of her students,” Spena continued. “The First Amendment prohibits that abuse of power.”
The lawsuit claims that the school’s actions are in violation of the First Amendment, the Fourteenth Amendment, and the Civil Rights Act of 1871. A spokesman for the school responded to the lawsuit by claiming that “this district always will strive to provide a safe, comfortable environment for all of our nearly 6,000 students in which to learn. We have engaged legal counsel and we will have no further comment on pending litigation.”