PENDLETON, Ore. – Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys filed a lawsuit Wednesday on behalf of a licensed clinical social worker after the InterMountain Education Service District banned him from displaying the children’s books, “He is He,” “She is She,” and “Johnny the Walrus,” behind his office desk.
The district allows its employees to decorate their offices with personal items including paintings, photos, quotes, books, and even posters or statements that convey political messages. Rod Theis was inspired by the message of hope for children conveyed in the books, which explain how every child should embrace and love herself as God made her to be, and decided to place them behind his office desk, displaying only their covers as decoration.
However, an employee saw the covers of the books and complained that they were “transphobic.” The district labeled the display as “a hostile expression of animus toward another person relating to their actual or perceived gender identity” and ordered Theis to remove them. The district then warned Theis that “further conduct of this nature” may result in discipline, including termination of his employment, simply because district officials disagreed with the books’ content.
“This case isn’t about books; it’s about public officials telling an employee that he isn’t allowed to express a view that differs from their own,” said ADF Senior Counsel Tyson Langhofer, director of the ADF Center for Academic Freedom. “Our legal system is built on the truth that the government can’t silence a speaker just because it disapproves of what he says. 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.”
“I want every student I work with to experience kindness, dignity and respect during their time with me,” Theis said. “This is an important aspect of what I do in the educational environment. Government officials are wrong to tell me I can’t express my sincere religious beliefs about male and female. Every American, including my coworkers, has the same freedom to express their own views on the subject.”
ADF attorneys explain that Theis’ display of the books caused no disruption—not one student or school staff member commented about the books to Theis. The school principal even told him that he did not consider the books to be offensive or inappropriate.
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. The district’s censorship of Theis’ message, and the speech policy on which that censorship was based, violate the First and Fourteenth Amendments.
ADF attorneys filed the lawsuit, Theis v. InterMountain Education Service District Board of Directors, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon, Pendleton Division.
- Pronunciation guide: Theis (TICE), Langhofer (LANG’-hoff-ur)
The ADF Center for Academic Freedom is dedicated to protecting First Amendment and related freedoms for students and faculty so that everyone can freely participate in the marketplace of ideas without fear of government censorship.
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