BUZZ
Key Takeaways
- Roderick Theis, an Oregon school social worker, was fired for refusing to remove 'transphobic' children's books from his office, leading to a failed free speech lawsuit in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
- Theis displayed books promoting traditional views of gender identity, which school officials deemed hostile toward gender nonconforming individuals, prompting a complaint against him.
- Though a judge initially allowed Theis to display the books when his office was empty, he was later recorded showing them to students, resulting in an investigation and his termination.
- A dissenting opinion suggested inconsistencies in free speech protections for educators, questioning whether certain political expressions were allowed while Theis's views were censored.
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.
An investigation was initiated, which ultimately led to Theis’ firing. After challenging it, the judge who ordered the injunction said his ruling did not “protect Theis’ display of the books in the presence of students.”
In its Tuesday decision, the Ninth Circuit majority, appointed by Barack Obama and Joe Biden respectively, said the lower court judge “acted appropriately ‘given the robust body of precedent holding that educators speak as government employees when they convey messages to students within the four walls of a school.’”
In a “stinging” dissent, Trump-appointed Judge Lawrence VanDyke said the majority ruling is “irreconcilable with Supreme Court precedent.”
VanDyke noted since other district employees were allowed to display “Pride flags, Black Lives Matter posters, and political endorsements,” might then a (public) school “permit its employees to string up their own ‘GLOBALIZE THE INTIFADA’ banners in their offices, while simultaneously banning any employees from personally decorating with the Israeli flag?”
He added a “free and open American society appropriately recoils at the prospect of public school teachers becoming involuntarily conscripted apparatchiks of any administration’s particular orthodoxy.”
In a statement to The College Fix, Alliance Defending Freedom Legal Counsel Mathew Hoffman said “[W]e are evaluating our next steps. The government can’t silence a speaker just because it disapproves of what he says, yet InterMountain fired Rod Theis after a single person objected to his views. We will continue to defend Rod’s First Amendment freedom to express his views like other employees.”
MORE: Teacher fired for refusing to use student’s preferred pronouns gets $575K settlement
