A middle school teacher in Ohio is suing her former school district, school board and education officials because she claims she was forced to resign from her job after she refused to address students who identified as transgender by their preferred names and pronouns.
Vivian Geraghty was an English teacher at Jackson Memorial Middle School in Massillon, Ohio from August 2020 to August 2022, according to CBS. Geraghty’s lawsuit explains that she did not refer to two students by names and pronouns that corresponded with their new gender identities rather than their biological sex. This is known as “social transitioning.”
“According to her Christian faith, Ms. Geraghty has sincerely held religious beliefs that govern her views about human nature, marriage, gender, sexuality, morality, politics, and social issues,” the lawsuit reads.
“Ms. Geraghty’s faith teaches her that God immutably creates each person as male or female; these two distinct, complementary sexes reflect the image of God; and rejection of one’s biological sex is a rejection of the image of God within that person,” it continued. “Ms. Geraghty also believes she cannot affirm as true those ideas and concepts that she believes are not true. Doing so, she believes, would violate biblical commands against dishonesty and lying.”
On August 26, Geraghty met with the school principal, Kacy Carter, to come to an agreement that would allow her to teach the students without violating her religious beliefs. The lawsuit claims that Geraghty was told to “put her beliefs aside as a public servant.” Monica Myers, the district’s director of curriculum, told Geraghty “her unwillingness to participate in social transition in violation of her faith amounted to insubordination and that continuing to teach without violating her beliefs would ‘not work in a district like Jackson.’”
Later that day, Geraghty was pulled out of her classroom and told to resign immediately if she could not “set [her] religious convictions aside.”
A copy of Geraghty’s resignation was obtained by the Canton Repository. In the letter, Geraghty outlined that her reason for her departure was due to the fact that she would not call students by their preferred names and pronouns. She was not given the option to switch classes so that she would not have to teach the transgender students.
"I was asked to conform to students' gender identities that opposed my religious beliefs. Unequivocally and unapologetically, I will not do so," she wrote in the Aug. 26 letter.
"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,” she continued, adding that “there are lines that I will not cross, as they would violate my conscience and my God.”
Geraghty filed her lawsuit in federal court in Akron with representation from Alliance Defending Freedom. In a press release, ADF Senior Counsel Tyson Langhofer said that the school district requires teachers “to immediately and personally validate a child’s gender transition even if doing so violates their religious beliefs, conscience, or sound judgment.”