A federal appeals court has ruled against a now-fired Oregon school counselor who displayed books promoting binary gender views to students. The counselor, Roderick E. Theis II, had displayed books titled ‘He is He’ and ‘She is She’ in his office, as well as a children’s book penned by conservative commentator Matt Walsh, titled ‘Johnny the Walrus,’ that ‘allegorically comments on transgender issues.’
Background
Theis, an education specialist who worked for the InterMountain Education Service District (IMESD) for over 15 years, had displayed the books in two separate offices on different campuses when meeting with middle school students. Following an investigation into the incident, Theis told school administrators that he did not mean any harm by displaying the books and even considered putting them away when transgender-identifying students visited his office.
However, the IMESD concluded that the display of the books was a ‘bias incident’ and instructed the counselor to remove them from his school offices — or risk termination. A federal judge later partially granted Theis’ request for a protective order that allowed him to continue displaying the books in his offices when students were not visiting, but his employment was ultimately terminated after a district investigation revealed Theis provided the books to middle school students who had requested to see them.
Appeals Court Ruling
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Theis’ termination, with the majority opinion outlining longstanding precedents that an educator’s speech is considered government speech when interacting with students. The court ruled that Theis’ speech occurred in the course of his responsibilities and cannot be meaningfully separated from them, and therefore falls outside the First Amendment’s ambit.
The sole dissenting opinion, written by Circuit Judge Lawrence VanDyke, sharply criticized the ruling, arguing that Theis’ books should be considered personal decorative items in his office. VanDyke questioned whether a school could permit employees to hang pro-Palestinian banners while simultaneously banning the display of the Israeli flag.
Original reporting: Fox News (HLL/CB) — read the source article.
