The teacher had to resign despite attempting to find “a solution that would allow her to continue teaching without violating her religious beliefs and constitutional rights,” according to her lawsuit.
A former Ohio school teacher has filed a lawsuit over the circumstances of her resignation.
According to media reports, Vivian Geraghty (24) is suing the school she used to work at, the Jackson Memorial Middle School in Massillon, as well as the Board of Education and two school district employees.
Geraghty, who resigned in August, claims that she quit her job after two students asked her to use names aligned “with their new gender identities rather than their legal names.”
As the students’ request was apparently in line with the school’s policy that stipulates teachers use students’ preferred pronouns, Geraghty, who describes herself as Christian, reached out to the principal in a bid to reach “a solution that would allow her to continue teaching without violating her religious beliefs and constitutional rights.”
However, as she insisted that she would not use the students’ preferred pronouns, Geraghty later had another meeting with the principal and another school district employee, and was told that “she would be required to put her beliefs aside as a public servant,” the lawsuit alleges.
The district employee then reportedly told Geraghty that, if she did not participate in the students’ “social transition”, she would have to quit, and the latter ended up resigning over what she described as “irreconcilable” differences between herself and the school district.
“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 reportedly stated.
The lawsuit claims the request signified the students' decisions to transition to genders inconsistent with their sex assigned at birth.
Feeling that doing so would violate both her Christian faith and "scientific understanding," Geraghty approached principal Kacy Carter to discuss "a way to move forward consistent with her conscience and her professional obligation."
"But as soon as Defendants found out that Ms. Geraghty had a religious basis for resisting their attempt to implement an orthodoxy, they forced her to resign," the lawsuit reads.
Carter allegedly told Geraghty that as a public employee, she must be willing to put her religious beliefs aside. With Geraghty unwilling to do so, she was allegedly handed a laptop by another employee and instructed to draft a resignation letter immediately.
"Within two hours of being notified that Ms. Geraghty had reservations about their approach to the issue, without there ever being any complaint from a student or disruption of any school services, Defendants ejected her from the school," the lawsuit reads.
Geraghty ultimately submitted a letter of resignation in which she said she was "standing up for the mission that every teacher should fight for." She feels that fighting for what she believes in aligns with what she and others strive to teach students to do every day.
Geraghty calls JLS's actions a violation of both freedom of speech and religion, as well as an attempt by Ohio to enforce a set of beliefs on its employees. Her argument is supported by Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), the conservative Christian legal advocacy group which filed the suit on her behalf.
“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 recite as true 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," ADF Legal Counsel Logan Spena said. "The First Amendment prohibits that abuse of power."
JLS indicated to The National Desk (TND) that its goal is to "provide a safe, comfortable environment" for all of its nearly 6,000 students. While it is aware of the lawsuit and has engaged legal counsel, it says it has no further comment on pending litigations.
Teacher Who Refused to Use a Student’s Chosen Pronouns Jailed in Ireland
In September 2022 Enoch Burke, a teacher at the Church of Ireland’s diocesan school for Meath and Kildare, was arrested because he entered school grounds after being suspended and put on administrative leave. In doing so, he breached a court order and was subsequently arrested and sent to Mountjoy prison.
Burke teaches German, history and politics at Wilson’s Hospital School in Westmeath, Ireland, which is a Church of Ireland boarding school first founded in 1761 and was an all-boys school until 1969. Burke was given a court order at the start of fall term not to teach or be physically present at the school following his refusal to address one of his student’s with their chosen pronouns.
Burke refused to comply with the order and apparently showed up to the empty classroom and declared he was there to work. It was then that he was arrested after breaching the court order.
“I am a teacher and I don't want to go to prison. I want to be in my classroom today, that's where I was this morning when I was arrested,” Burke told Judge Michael Quinn in court. “I love my school, with its motto Res Non Verba, actions not words, but I am here today because I said I would not call a boy a girl.”
“Transgenderism is against my Christian belief. It is contrary to the scriptures, contrary to the ethos of the Church of Ireland and of my school,” he added.
“My religious beliefs are not misconduct. They are not gross misconduct. They never will be. They are dear to me. I will never deny them and never betray them, and I will never bow to an order that would require me to do so. It is just not possible for me to do that.”
Judge Quinn found Burke guilty of violating a High Court order to keep him off the school’s premises. Judge Quinn said he was not ruling on Burke’s principles or religious beliefs but on the question of whether or not he would try and return to the school despite being prohibited from doing so.
“It is insanity that I will be led from this courtroom to a place of incarceration, but I will not give up my Christian beliefs,” said Burke after the judge made his ruling.
Rosemary Mallon, who is a barrister-at-law for the board of management, told Judge Quinn that the school, in an effort to get Burke to comply with the order, saw that they had no choice but to send him to prison despite having a “heavy heart” in doing so.
“Mr. Burke is knowingly in breach of this order, he is therefore in contempt and he has made it clear that if he is not committed to prison he will attend at the school (today), and the concerns of the school regarding the ongoing disruption to the students remain,” said Mallon before the ruling.
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