Education professionals often display a variety of messages in their classrooms and offices. Sometimes, these messages of private expression advocate for certain political views or causes.
At La Grande Middle School in Oregon, for example, one teacher displays an illustration of President Barack Obama saying, “Yes, we can.” Another teacher displays a Pride flag, and a counselor displays a poster that says, “Black students, Black dreams, Black futures, Black lives MATTER!”
Oregon officials have allowed education professionals to express all these messages. But when Rod Theis wanted to express a message celebrating biological truth at the very same middle school, officials quickly censored him.
Who is Rod Theis?
Rod is a licensed clinical social worker in Oregon. Since 2008, he has worked for the InterMountain Education Service District (the “District”), which serves 17 school districts in the eastern part of the state.
Rod’s job is to meet with children across several school districts to assess their educational needs. He has offices in multiple schools where he holds these one-on-one meetings.
During the 2024 school year, Rod decorated his office with two children’s books, He is He and She is She. Rod appreciated the messages of the books—a celebration of what it means to be a boy or girl designed by God. Rod also displayed the book Johnny the Walrus by conservative commentator Matt Walsh in his offices in the Elgin and Union School Districts. Rod appreciated the message of this book, too—a story about Johnny coming to terms with the fact that he is a boy, not a walrus.
To Rod, his office decorations communicated a positive message that celebrates God’s design of human beings as male or female as beautiful. Rod did not use the books as part of his work with students, and no students complained or even commented about them to Rod. But that didn’t stop the district from targeting Rod.
The district censors Rod’s speech
In October 2024, the principal of La Grande Middle School emailed Rod and told him that a staff member had complained about He is He and She is She. While the principal admitted that he did not find anything offensive or inappropriate in the books, he said they contained Bible verses, which could be seen as an attempt to push a certain point of view on a student. But Rod had never read these books to students at all; he was using them as office decorations, and only the covers were visible.
The principal asked Rod to “remove the two books from the school and keep them for personal use only,” and Rod complied. But that wasn’t enough for the district.
That same month, district officials sent Rod an email explaining that a La Grande Middle School employee had filed a complaint accusing Rod of violating the district’s “Every Student Belongs” policy. The employee accused Rod of displaying “transphobic” books, creating a “bias incident,” which the policy vaguely defines as a “person’s hostile expression of animus toward” another “person’s perceived … gender identity.”
But Rod never expressed “animus” toward anyone. The district, however, interpreted the book covers to convey a message that could be considered offensive to students who view gender as a spectrum and punished Rod for promoting a “binary view of gender.” Meanwhile, school faculty displayed Pride flags and books celebrating or containing LGBT themes, and the district allowed other education professionals to display messages in support of the Oregon Education Association, which pushes the use of gender-neutral pronouns when referring to students and warns members against “misgendering.”
In other words, the district punished Rod for expressing one message about gender while permitting other employees to express a different message on the topic. That is a clear violation of the First Amendment.
Standing up for free speech
The district ordered Rod to remove the books and warned him that “further conduct of this nature may result in discipline up to and including termination of employment.”
Rod appealed the decision first to the district’s superintendent and then to the district’s board of directors, but both upheld the investigation’s findings. So Rod decided to file a lawsuit with the help of Alliance Defending Freedom.
The government can’t censor its employees’ private speech simply because it disagrees with the message. The Constitution protects Americans’ right to express their views without fear of punishment. Public employees don’t surrender that right when they enter the government workforce.
Theis v. InterMountain Education Service District Board of Directors
- November 2024: The InterMountain Education Service District sent a letter to Rod Theis informing him that he had violated its policy by displaying He is He, She is She, and Johnny the Walrus in his offices. The district ordered Rod to remove the books and warned that he could be fired for similar “conduct” in the future.
- February 2025: The district denied Rod’s request for appeal.
- May 2025: ADF filed a lawsuit on Rod’s behalf challenging the district’s censorship.
