by Marie Tiemann
SPEAKVT is very grateful for the recent Federal Court decision that upholds the First Amendment free speech rights of public school students.
According to the ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, public school students cannot be forced to use “preferred pronouns” when referring to others who claim to be “transgender.” The Court ruled that doing so is compelled speech and a violation of students’ First Amendment rights.
Before 2023, schools in Olentangy Ohio practiced such censorship. But parents, with legal support from Defending Education, a national organization that fights for student and parental rights in schools, sued. Before the suit, students who misgendered their peers risked school punishment (including suspension or expulsion) even if the misgendering took place off school grounds or on social media!
Quoting from Court’s decision, “The School District has not just entered this policy debate. It has taken a side…Over hundreds of years, grammar has developed in America without governmental interference. Consistent with our historical tradition and our cherished First Amendment, the pronoun debate must be won through individual persuasion, not government coercion. Our system forbids public schools from becoming ‘enclaves of totalitarianism.”
The court also ruled that even when the school would permit students to avoid misgendering by not using pronouns at all, such practices are still forcing students to change their preferred activity to align with school-imposed ideology.
SPEAKVT is very proud to be working with Defending Education in Vermont to stand up for the rights of Vermont students, parents and educators.
SPEAKVT calls on the Vermont public school system to stop violating the First Amendment rights of students.
If you know of incidences where free speech is being violated in a Vermont school, please contact us at speakvermont@gmail.com
Author is President, SPEAKVT for Parents in Education, Inc..