US teacher wins £362k payout after refusing to use trans students’ preferred gender pronouns

4 January 2025, 09:44

A US teacher who was allegedly told to resign after refusing to call trans students by their preferred gender pronouns has won a $450,000 (£362,000) payout.

Vivian Geraghty took legal action against the Jackson Local School District, Ohio, in 2022.

She claims the school district violated her First Amendment rights by penalising her for refusing to use a students’ preferred names or gender pronouns.

A ruling from the US District Court for the Northern District found that forcing Ms Geraghty to use the student’s preferred name was a form of “compelled speech”. 

The ruling added that the school’s “pronoun practice was not neutral.”

In 2022, two of Ms Geraghty’s students reportedly requested that she call them names that were different to the ones on the school’s roster.

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A legal filing shows Geraghty was aware that these requests were “part of the student’s social transition”.

 But the teacher did not agree on principle due to her religious beliefs, allegedly stating that she “wanted those students out of her classroom.”

Ms Geraghty carried on calling to the trans students the names they were assigned at birth, despite being sent her a follow-up request via email by one of the students. 

That student later complained about it to a school counselor. Ms Geraghty was warned in a follow-up meeting that the student felt uncomfortable, but she maintained that religious beliefs also made her  uncomfortable using preferred names or pronouns “because she would know what was behind it.”

She was told in a second meeting “it was going to be a problem” if she did not comply, the filing shows. 

In a third meeting, Ms Geraghty claimed the principal said that “If that is your final decision, then we need a letter of resignation effective today.”

The principal has alleged that Ms Geraghty then said she didn’t think she could work for the school anymore, saying: “I guess I’ll resign.”

Logan Spena, legal counsel for 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, like what makes us male or female, by ordering her to personally participate in the social transition of her students. 

“The First Amendment prohibits that abuse of power, and Jackson Local School District officials have learned that comes at a steep cost.”

The school district said in a statement it “remains dedicated to navigating complex and changing legal environments in a manner that prioritises student safety and well-being”.

In 2022, Enoch Burke, a former teacher from Ireland, was suspended from Wilson's Hospital School in County Westmeath over a row about addressing a student transitioning gender with a new name and using their preferred “they” pronoun. 

In August 2022 he confronting his then-principal at a school event and was later sacked.

Burke continued to show up for his timetabled hours at the school, later receiving a court injunction to prevent him from doing so.

He breached the court order and was jailed in September 2022 before being released three months later. Burke was jailed again in September 2023 for breaching a second court order.

He has claimed he was wrongfully jailed due to his objections to "transgenderism" after the school told him to call his former student by a different pronoun.