A recent court decision supported the Olentangy Local School District in Ohio, which has anti-bullying rules, including one that protects transgender students from pronoun abuse, Courthouse News Service reports.
The district’s rules prevent bullying based on “sexual orientation and transgender identity.” A group called Parents Defending Education sued, claiming these rules forced students to use transgender students’ preferred pronouns and went against their First Amendment rights of free speech.
The group wanted a court to stop these rules from being enforced. When a lower court refused to block the rules, they appealed to the Sixth Circuit Court. Several states and conservative groups joined the appeal, arguing that the rules infringed on free speech. However, the court decided that the rules did not force students to speak a certain way. Students could choose not to use pronouns if they preferred.
The majority explained that the rules were like other school rules that prevent discrimination and harassment, such as banning racial slurs. The court believed that these rules were necessary to create a safe environment for all students, including transgender ones. They said protecting students from bullying was more important than the free speech concerns raised.
“Sharing controversial religious beliefs is different from describing a Mormon student as not a real Christian. By the same token, discussing sex and gender identity is different from using non-preferred pronouns to state that one’s transgender classmate is not really a girl,” Judge Jane Stranch wrote for the majority.
The lawyer for the Olentangy school district argued that the policies were meant to protect all students from harassment, not just transgender students. He said that allowing discrimination against transgender students would be unfair and not what the rules intended.
One judge, Alice Batchelder, disagreed. She felt that students should be able to use “biological pronouns” and that the school’s rules were like enforcing a particular viewpoint. In her dissent, she argued that the district had not shown any real problems caused by using non-preferred pronouns.
However, the majority of the three-judge panel ruled that using incorrect pronouns could harm transgender students and that the rules helped prevent such harm. The rules support the district’s efforts to protect all students from bullying and discrimination and provide them with equal access to educational opportunities.