An Indiana school district will pay $650,000 to end a lengthy legal battle after one of its schools tried to coerce a Christian teacher into using made-up pronouns for its gender-confused students.
Music teacher John Kluge is a practicing Christian and minister at a local church. In 2017, school officials mandated that all teachers recognize any sexual identity their students claimed. This entailed using their “preferred pronouns.”
After meeting with administrators, Kluge reached a reasonable compromise. While he would not use someone’s incorrect pronouns, as that would violate his faith, he could use their last name. He compared this to how a coach would refer to his players.
While this compromise briefly worked, school officials later reneged on the agreement and ultimately forced him out of a job in 2018.
The firing led to a subsequent federal lawsuit, filed by Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), about five and a half years ago. The district decided to settle the lawsuit rather than face an upcoming trial, according to ADF.
“This settlement confirms what the law has always said: Public schools cannot force teachers to violate their religious beliefs,” Senior Counsel David Cortman stated in a news release.
The 2023 Supreme Court case Groff v. DeJoy strengthened Kluge’s arguments. In that case, the majority ruled that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 requires employers to provide religious accommodations unless they can prove a “substantial” not de minimis cost.
“Title VII requires employers to accommodate their employees’ religious beliefs and practices,” Cortman, the ADF attorney, stated.
The religious liberty group said the settlement is proof teachers “do not have to bow the knee to ideological mandates that violate their religious beliefs.”
Alliance Defending Freedom also said the district agreed to train administrators on the religious rights of employees under Title VII.
Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita also celebrated the settlement, calling it a “VICTORY for religious liberty” in the state.
“No teacher in Indiana should ever be compelled by government schools to deny their sincerely held beliefs just to keep their job,” the attorney general wrote on X.
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