The Ohio teacher says she was forced to resign after telling the principal that using students’ preferred pronouns violated her religion
A former Ohio middle school teacher said she was forced to resign after telling the principal that she would not address students with their preferred pronouns because of their religious beliefs.
Vivian Geraghty, 24, is now embroiled in a lawsuit against the principal of Jackson Memorial Middle School, the Board of Education and two school district employees.
Geraghty, who is a Christian, worked at the school in Massillon, Ohio, where she taught art, until her abrupt retirement on August 26.
A 24-year-old Christian art teacher said she was forced to quit her job at an Ohio middle school because she didn’t want to address two of her students with their preferred pronouns
The school had adopted a policy that said its teachers would honor students’ wishes for the names and pronouns they wanted to be called
A federal lawsuit filed last week said that prior to her resignation, she “taught her class while remaining consistent with her religious practices and her scholarly understanding of human identity, gender and gender.”
In early August, two of Geraghty’s students urged them to use names that “consistent with their new gender identities and not their legal names.”
One of the students, according to the lawsuit, also wanted to be addressed with new “preferred” pronouns. The lawsuit also found that the school had a policy that required teachers to use whatever pronouns students wanted.
Disregarding Geraghty’s religious beliefs, the policy prompted her to meet with principal Kacy Carter “in the hope of finding a solution that would allow her to continue teaching without violating her religious beliefs and constitutional rights.”
Ohio director Kacy Carter, who allegedly told Geraghty that she needed to change her faith-based beliefs or resign
After her conversation with Carter, Geraghty was called to a separate meeting with Principal and District Clerk Monica Myers.
During the second meeting, Geraghty was told she would “put aside her beliefs as a government official” and any unwillingness to do so would be counted as disobedience, according to the lawsuit.
When the teacher resisted, she was sent back to her classroom, only to be pulled out minutes later and ordered to either change her mind or resign her position.
Feeling she had no other choice, she decided to resign and handed in a letter of resignation. She was then escorted out of the building.
The Alliance Defending Freedom has taken up Geraghty’s case, arguing that “no school official can force a teacher to put aside her religious beliefs in order to keep her job.”
Attorneys for the Alliance Defending Freedom, which has been handling Geraghty’s case, said the school has not considered ways to accommodate Geraghty and her students, such as moving them to a different classroom or addressing their students by their last names.
The lawsuit alleges that the school’s policies are unevenly enforced, for example, with Kacy being able to completely avoid using pronouns in his position.
The ADF also argued that Geraghty should not have been placed in a position where she had to “choose between her faith and her job.”
Logan Spena, attorney for the ADF, wrote: “No school official can force a teacher to give up her religious beliefs in order to keep her job.”
“The First Amendment prohibits this abuse of power.”