Ohio teacher forced out for refusing to use students’ pronouns, suit says

A former English teacher in Ohio claims she was forced to quit her job after she claimed that it violates her religious beliefs to use students’ preferred pronouns.

Vivian Geraghty, 24, filed a lawsuit against Jackson Memorial Middle School in Massillon, Ohio, the Board of Education, and two school district employees this week in federal court, alleging free speech retaliation and violations against her right to practice her Christian religion.

The lawsuit claims that Geraghty resigned on Aug. 26.

About a week before Geraghty quit, she said two students requested she use names that align “with their new gender identities rather than their legal names.”

One of the students also wanted to be addressed by a preferred pronoun, according to the lawsuit, claiming the school had instituted a policy requiring teachers to use students’ preferred pronouns.

Geraghty said that she went to the principal “in the hope of reaching a solution that would allow her to continue teaching without violating her religious beliefs and constitutional rights” and said she would not use the students’ preferred pronouns.

She was later called into another meeting with the principal and another school district employee, who told her that “she would be required to put her beliefs aside as a public servant,” but Geraghty said she would not change her mind, the lawsuit alleges.

Geraghty was then told that she must quit if she did not participate in the student’s “social transition” by the school district employee, who handed her a laptop and ordered her to draft a resignation letter for immediate submission, which she did, according to the court filing.

In the letter, which has been filed in court as a part of the lawsuit brought by The Alliance Defending Freedom, Geraghty cites “irreconcilable” differences between herself and the school district as her reason for quitting.

“While some may say this is forcing my beliefs on others, I say this is standing up for the mission that every teacher should fight for,” Geraghty wrote.

Geraghty’s lawsuit is seeking unspecified damages.