A young Christian teacher stood her ground when school officials demanded she violate her religious beliefs.
Now, that principled stand is dearly costing the progressive administrators.
This from thepatriotjournal.com.
Vivian Geraghty, a 26-year-old English teacher at Jackson Memorial Middle School in Ohio, faced an impossible choice in August 2022 when school administrators gave her an ultimatum: Either use students’ preferred pronouns that contradicted their biological sex or resign immediately.
But this American refused to lay down and die. She took this controversy to the courts. Below are the results of the challenge.
From Daily Wire:
An Ohio school district will pay nearly half a million dollars to a teacher who was forced to resign after she said she could not use trans-identifying students’ new names and pronouns due to her Christian faith, The Daily Wire has learned.
English teacher Vivian Geraghty, 26, won a $450,000 settlement from the Jackson Local School District, her legal team announced Wednesday. She will not be returning to work for the district.
Geraghty said after district officials pressured her to participate in students’ gender transitions by using new names and pronouns that conflicted with her Christian faith:
They tried to force me to set my religious beliefs aside as a public servant.
The confrontation began when two students requested that Geraghty use new names aligned with gender identities different from their biological sex.
Following her conscience, she went to the principal, hoping to find a reasonable solution that would not violate her religious convictions.
Instead of accommodation, she was given an ultimatum. School officials, including Principal Kacy Carter and Director of Curriculum Monica Myers, told her she must “put her beliefs aside as a public servant.”
Apparently, the school officials forgot that public servants still have Constitutional rights. When Geraghty tried explaining that forcing her to resign violated her free speech rights, administrators doubled down. They handed her a laptop and demanded she write her resignation letter on the spot.
Logan Spena, legal counsel with Alliance Defending Freedom, which represented Geraghty, said:
The school tried to force Vivian to accept and repeat the school’s viewpoint on issues that go to the foundation of morality and human identity.
Further:
The First Amendment prohibits that abuse of power, and Jackson Local School District officials have learned that comes at a steep cost.
The settlement represents growing pushback against progressive gender policies being forced on teachers nationwide.
In September 2024, French teacher Peter Vlaming in Virginia won a similar case, receiving $575,000 after being fired for avoiding pronouns that violated his religious beliefs.
These victories are hitting progressive school districts
where it hurts most—their budgets.
While Jackson Local’s insurance carrier, Liberty Mutual, will cover the settlement, the message is clear:
Violating religious liberty comes with consequences.
The district’s response? A carefully worded statement about:
[Being] committed to cultivating a learning environment where every student feels supported.
That is unless a student grows up to be a teacher with traditional Christian values that are expected by them to be subordinated and stifled.
What is particularly telling is the school district offered no apology for violating Geraghty’s constitutional rights. Instead, they seemed more concerned about damage control, emphasizing that “no dollars” would be spent by the school district directly.
This case serves as a warning to other school districts contemplating similar policies:
– The Bill of Rights is not optional, even in today’s progressive educational environment, and
– Teachers do not surrender their religious liberty at the schoolhouse door.
Also, the school district’s response to Ms. Geraghty should serve as a warning to concerned parents. Acknowledgement of wrongdoing without recrimination are important character traits a school should be demonstrating. In other words, this may not be an appropriate school district in which to purchase a home. And to those already residing in this district, attend the school board meetings, identify the sources of the problem, and seek to vote in new board members and to hire new administrators.
Ms. Geraghty’s victory offers hope that standing firm on religious principles can still prevail against progressive overreach.
