Christian teacher receives $95k payout after being suspended for using trans student’s birth name

A Christian teacher in the US has received a $95,000 settlement after she was suspended for failing to use a transgender student’s preferred name.

Pamela Ricard, a maths teacher from Kansas, was told she must use the student’s original — legal — name when speaking to the parents, while using the new,  preferred name and pronouns in the classroom.

She was reprimanded by the school and received a 3-day suspension after she used the child’s legal name in class, which led her to sue the county’s school district.

Christian convictions

Ricard explained that because she is a Christian, she holds “sincere religious beliefs consistent with the traditional Christian and biblical understanding of the human person and biological sex”.

She argued that being compelled to refer to students by gendered names or pronouns contrary to their biological sex violated her religious freedoms.

The teacher also said that keeping the student’s parents in the dark was to engage in deception, which again was at odds with her faith.

As part of the settlement, the school also agreed to cover her legal costs and issue a statement that she was in “good standing without any disciplinary actions against her at the time of her retirement”.

‘Absurdity and deception’

Following the outcome, Alliance Defending Freedom, who assisted in the case said: “No school district should ever force teachers to willfully deceive parents or engage in any speech that violates their deeply held religious beliefs.”

A partner at Kriegshauser Ney Law Group, whose attorneys represented Ricard, said: “Schools shouldn’t lie to parents and teachers don’t forfeit their constitutional rights at the schoolhouse door.”

He said the school district “unsuccessfully tried to convince a federal court that a teacher should completely avoid using a child’s name during a parent teacher conference in order to hide new names and genders being used by the school for a child in a classroom.

“Absurdity and deception has its limits, especially in federal court. I’m glad the case clarifies the financial stakes for school boards if they attempt to force teachers to lie to parents about their students.”