An Ohio school district has been ordered to pay $450,000 in compensation to a Christian teacher who was fired for refusing to use inaccurate pronouns for a “transgender” student.
26-year-old English teacher Vivian Geraghty lost her job when she said could not use the student’s new name and pronouns due to her Christian faith.
The former middle school teacher with Jackson Local Schools settled her lawsuit against the district for $450,000.
Geraghty said she was fired when she refused to address two students by names inconsistent with their real gender.
At a special meeting Wednesday morning, the school board unanimously approved the agreement with Geraghty.
On Wednesday, the organization that represented Geraghty, the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), announced that the district agreed to pay $450,000 in damages and attorneys’ fees after violating her freedom of speech.
In a statement, ADF legal counsel Logan Spena said:
“No school official can force a teacher to set her religious beliefs aside in order to keep her job.
“The school tried to force Vivian to accept and repeat the school’s viewpoint on issues that go to the foundation of morality and human identity, like what makes us male or female, by ordering her to personally participate in the social transition of her students.
“The First Amendment prohibits that abuse of power, and Jackson Local School District officials have learned that comes at a steep cost,” Spena said.
“Vivian resisted this unconstitutional demand and explained that her Christian faith made her unable to participate in her students’ social transition, and she has received just vindication for taking this stand.”
Geraghty had alleged in her federal lawsuit that she was fired in 2022 because she refused to contradict her religious beliefs by complying with the schools’ gender and pronoun policies.
In the hope of reaching a solution, Geraghty went to the principal before she was fired, according to the lawsuit.
However, the principal and his superior, the director of curriculum, instruction, and assessment, told her “she would be required to put her beliefs aside as a public servant.”
She was allegedly accused of insubordination.
Geraghty was also told that continuing to teach without participating in the students’ “gender transitions” would “not work in a district like Jackson.”
She was informed that if she did not participate, she would be fired, her lawsuit said.
Geraghty said she attempted to tell the principal that firing her was a violation of her right to free speech.
However, the principal repeated that as a public servant, she must “set [her] religious convictions aside” if she wanted to keep her job.
The principal’s superior then told her she was fired, effective immediately, the lawsuit said.
“Geraghty’s sincerely held religious beliefs and scientific understanding govern her view that a person is male or female based on sex, not personal identity, and participating in a student’s social transition violates those beliefs by forcing her to communicate messages she believes are untrue and harmful to the student,” ADF said in a press release.
In a statement, Board of Education President Tonya Wright said:
“The Jackson Local School District is committed to cultivating a learning environment where every student feels supported, valued and safe.”
She said the dispute was resolved with the assistance of a retired judge in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court.
“We are pleased that we were able to reach a satisfactory resolution of this matter after careful consideration and collaboration with mediator Judge Richard McMonagle,” she said.
Kristen Moore, an attorney representing the district, said the payment will be made by the district’s insurer, Liberty Mutual of Boston.
“There’s going to be no dollars spent by the school district,” she said.
There will be no policy changes at Jackson schools as a result of the agreement, the attorney noted.
