Teacher punished for not using student’s pronouns gets $95K settlement

Listen 4 min Comment on this story Comment Gift Article Share

A Christian math teacher who sued Kansas school officials this year alleging she was unfairly reprimanded and suspended for refusing to use a student’s pronouns is receiving $95,000 in a settlement with the school district. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight Pamela Ricard, a former teacher at Fort Riley Middle School in Kansas, claimed in the lawsuit that using the student’s pronouns went against her personal and religious beliefs. Instead, Ricard called the student by their legal name during class last spring.

Ricard’s attorneys called the settlement a “victory for free speech at public schools” in a news release.

Ricard should have never been punished for referring to a student by their legal name, especially when the school had no policy on the matter at the time of the incident and other teachers regularly addressed students by their last names, Tyson Langhofer, one of her attorneys, told The Washington Post.

“The school district wants to convey a message that gender and sex is fluid and can be changed, but Pamela and many other teachers believe that sex is biological and by being forced to use pronouns different [from students’] biological sex, teachers are being forced to use the school district’s beliefs on sex and gender rather than their own beliefs,” Langhofer told The Post.

Fort Riley Middle School Principal Kathleen Brennan declined to comment when reached by The Post. Geary County Schools Unified School District legal counsel Mark Edwards did not respond to a message from The Post.

In a statement shared with The Post, Ricard criticized the district’s former policy.

“Teachers shouldn’t be forced to mislead parents and say things that are untrue and harmful to students, but that’s exactly what Geary County Schools was trying to make me do,” Ricard said in an email.

On April 7, 2021, Ricard called a student “miss” followed by their last name to get the student’s attention at the end of class, court records say. When class ended, another classmate emailed the teacher to inform her that the student now used he/him pronouns and a different first name.

The following day, the lawsuit states, Ricard used the student’s last name instead of the new name or pronouns. That’s when the classmate grew frustrated, walking out of the room without permission after leaving a note on the teacher’s desk accusing her of being “transphobic,” adding their pronouns and requesting to be called by an alternative name.

“my pronouns are he/they btw,” the note read.

Two days later, Ricard was suspended for three days while school officials investigated her for 11 possible violations of board policies, court records say. On April 15, by the time Ricard had returned to school, school officials gave her a written reprimand for allegedly violating three of the board’s policies. They also ordered Ricard to use the same names and pronouns her students used for themselves, the complaint states. Ricard signed the written reprimand but wrote “I do not agree with this!” The teacher appealed the disciplinary action at least three times, the complaint states, but school officials denied all of her appeals.

In October, the district enacted a policy that mandates all teachers use the same names and pronouns their students do while in class, the complaint says. When speaking to parents, teachers were asked to use the students’ legal name, Langhofer said. These actions “violated her conscience,” the news release says.

In May, a judge ruled that Ricard could continue using the names students chose but did not have to use the pronouns students shared if they didn’t match their biological sex. After the court’s ruling, the school voted to revoke the policy that asked teachers to refer to students by their legal names when speaking with their parents.

As part of the Wednesday settlement, school officials also agreed to issue a statement saying Ricard was in “good standing without any disciplinary actions against her at the time of her retirement in May.”

“Fortunately, because of the court’s ruling respecting parent’s and teachers’ rights, my record has been cleared and I am able to communicate honestly with parents, while teaching according to my beliefs,” Ricard said in her statement to The Post.

Ricard now teaches at a school in another state because of family matters unrelated to the lawsuit against the Kansas school, Langhofer told The Post.