A public school employee in Oregon has sued after being ordered to remove conservative children’s books displayed in his workspace or face termination because they “promote a binary view of gender.”
Roderick Theis, an education specialist with the InterMountain Education Service District in Oregon, said the district banned him from decorating his office space with the book covers, concluding they represented “a hostile expression of animus toward another person related to their actual or perceived gender identity.”
The children’s titles on display were “He is He” and “She is She” by Ryan and Bethany Bomberger, and “Johnny the Walrus” by Matt Walsh.
“IMESD has created and implemented a Speech 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,” reads the lawsuit filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon (Pendleton Division).
Tyson Langhofer, senior counsel for the Alliance Defending Freedom, said the litigation “isn’t about books; it’s about public officials telling an employee he isn’t allowed to express a view that differs from their own.”
“Our legal system is built on the truth that the government can’t silence a speaker just because it disapproves of what he says,” said Mr. Langhofer, who represents Mr. Theis. “In the same way, the district can’t censor Rod’s freedom of expression by forcing him to remove children’s books used as decoration in his office. Doing so is a gross violation of the First Amendment.”
A district spokesperson said that the “IMESD will not comment on pending litigation.”
Mr. Theis, who travels to different schools to assess students’ academic and behavioral needs, said he began last year displaying “He is He” and “She is She” at his office at La Grande Middle School, and “Johnny the Walrus” in his workspaces at the Elgin and Union school districts.
In October, the La Grande principal said he had received a complaint from a staff member saying that the books “could be considered offensive to transgender students.”
After an investigation, the IMESD concluded in November that displaying the books amounted to a “bias incident” under its Every Student Belongs policy because “a hostile expression of animus toward another person relating to their actual or perceived gender identity.”
The district’s letter of directive to Mr. Theis also warned that “further conduct of this nature may result in discipline up to and including termination of employment,” and told Mr. Theis to complete a training program in “Making Schools Safe and Inclusive for Transgender Students.”
All three books contain the message that people cannot change their sex. The Bomberger books also include Bible verses such as “So God created mankind in His own image, in the image of God He created them: male and female.”
Certainly the books have a point of view, but according to the lawsuit, so do other works on display in Oregon public school buildings, such as political messages in support of the Oregon Education Association, the K-12 teachers’ union.
The lawsuit also ticked off a host of books with sexual and gender-ideology themes available in classrooms.
“For example, one 6th-grade classroom contains Cinder and Glass by Melissa de la Cruz, which features a same-sex relationship,” the lawsuit said. “Another 6th-grade classroom contains The Wicked Fate and This Poison Heart by Kalynn Bayron, which include non-binary characters and depict a same-sex relationship between the main character and another female character.”
Before the October complaint, Mr. Theis said nobody had raised an issue with the books on display. A school principal had
“The district has created and implemented a speech 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,” said the alliance.
