Vivian Geraghty: Ohio school teacher forced to quit job for refusing to use students’ preferred pronouns
MASSILLON, OHIO: A former Ohio English teacher has reportedly filed a lawsuit against Jackson Memorial Middle School in Massillon, Ohio, the Board of Education, and two school district employees recently, alleging that she was forced to leave her job after she claimed her Christian beliefs prohibited her from using the transgender students’ pronouns or their new names. Vivian Geraghty, 24, filed the suit in federal court alleging free speech retaliation and violations against her right to practice Christianity.
Geraghty reportedly resigned from her role on August 26, 2022, according to the lawsuit. She said two students requested she uses names that align “with their new gender identities rather than their legal names" about a week before Geraghty quit her job. The lawsuit also states that one of the students wanted to be addressed by a preferred pronoun. The school has reportedly instituted a policy that requires teachers to use students’ preferred pronouns.
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According to the New York Post, Geraghty said that she sought help from 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. Later, she was 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.
The school district employee then told her that she had to leave her job if she did not participate in the student's “social transition”. Besides, he handed her a laptop and ordered her to draft a resignation letter for immediate submission, which she did accordingly, according to the court filing.
Geraghty reportedly cites “irreconcilable” differences between herself and the school district as her reason for quitting in the letter, which has been filed in court as a part of the lawsuit brought by The Alliance Defending Freedom.
“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 said. “Vivian loves her students and wants what’s best for them,” said Tyson Langhofer, a senior counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative legal organization representing Geraghty in her lawsuit.
Langhofer told The Washington Post that “the district really had no interest in doing what was best for teachers and students but instead went on a crusade to compel this ideological conformity on the issue of sex and gender.”
Geraghty's lawsuit is seeking unspecified damages.
