School Social Worker In Oregon Loses Free Speech Lawsuit Over ‘Transphobic’ Books
“A La Grande teacher walking by recorded video of the students reading the books and filed a complaint.”
The supposedly transphobic books merely suggest that it’s OK to just be who you are. How shocking.
The College Fix reports:
Oregon school social worker loses free speech suit over ‘transphobic’ books
An Oregon school district social worker fired for refusing to take down a display of allegedly “transphobic” kids’ books has lost his free speech lawsuit at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in a 2-1 decision.
Roderick Theis had the books “He is He,” “She is She,” and “Johnny the Walrus” in his La Grande Middle School office because he says he was “inspired by the[ir] message of hope for children.”
The books explain “how every child should embrace and love herself as God made her to be,” according to Theis.
But in November 2023, officials in the InterMountain Education Service District told Theis he had to remove the books after an employee had complained, claiming the books were “a hostile expression of animus toward another person relating to their actual or perceived gender identity.”
With the assistance of Alliance Defending Freedom, Theis ending up suing, alleging the district created a policy that “forbids employees from expressing a biological view of sex but permits employees to express viewpoints that a person’s subjective identity determines whether a person is male or female, not a person’s sex.”
According to The Oregonian, a judge subsequently issued a partial injunction which allowed Theis to have the books on display “when [his] office was empty.”
Two days later, four students entered Theis’ office before school began and asked to see the books. Theis attempted to “redirect” them, but the students persisted, according to the dissenting opinion.
Operating under the assumption that the injunction allowed him to display the books when he wasn’t working with students in his official duties, he eventually let them view the books.
A La Grande teacher walking by recorded video of the students reading the books and filed a complaint.
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Comments
The court was correct. This is government speech, and the government is entitled to say whatever it likes. If the government employs you to speak for it, you must say only the things it tells you to say. You can speak for yourself on your own time.
That’s the opposite of the ruling in the Stop Woke Act in Florida. Maybe the Court will justify it on the grounds that the students are younger therefore Oregon can compel/restrict speech.
That is exactly the distinction. In universities the law presumes that students know that professors speak only for themselves and not for the school. In high schools, and a fortiori in elementary schools, the law presumes that students perceive all teachers as speaking for the school.
I don’t know if that was in the opinion.
Also this case refers to books sitting on a shelf, not the employee speaking to children about said books. If the school allowed other books that don’t conform to whatever speech code then he has an equal protection case.
His replacement has a new book on his shelf:
“Dick and Jane Help Mz. Oliver to Setup Mr. Theis.”
Ninth Circuit has the highest reversal rate in the country.
You’d think they could find better staffing.
I don’t think that’s still the case. Try the fifth.
I always get stuck when they use the term “transphobic.” That implies a “fear of” when in fact the usual response is a “disgust with” which is usually the result of the trans in question acting out in an asocial manner. For an unknown reason, the trannies in Portland have chosen my neighborhood, Hawthorne, to act out their delusions, which they do so in as loud a fashion as possible. It is almost as if they are saying “I am unhappy and very disturbed, so my mission in life is to make you unhappy and disturbed as well.” For a group that claims persecution, they sure seem to go out of their way to get into as many faces as possible. The obese bald guy, with glasses fitting of an Ivy League President, who parades around the neighborhood smoking a joint, is probably not the ideal champion of the movement seeking acceptance. And they should be grateful that I grant them as much tolerance as I do. They remind me of those people who go out looking for a fight, and then bitch, whine, and cry when they find one. I don’t discriminate. I treat them exactly the same as any other loud, annoying, attention-seeking, mentally ill person.
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