(CNN) A Kansas teacher is suing her school district superintendent, board members and principal after being suspended for not using a student's preferred name.
Pamela Ricard, who teaches math at Fort Riley Middle School, says she refuses to use the preferred names and pronouns of transgender and nonbinary students because it violates her religious beliefs.
After being disciplined multiple times for refusing to use a student's preferred name, Ricard filed a federal lawsuit against the Geary County Schools Unified School District on Monday.
"Ms. Ricard's faith teaches her that God immutably creates each person as male or female," the lawsuit states.
"We proposed a neutral policy to the district over eight months ago that would allow teachers to uniformly address students by their enrolled names," Josh Ney, Ricard's lawyer, told CNN.
Mark Edwards, the legal counsel representing the Geary County Schools Unified School District, told CNN they have no comment.
Arkansas last year became the first state to ban gender-affirming care, including puberty blockers and cross-sex hormone therapy, for minors. »
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