An Indiana school district did not violate the constitutional religious freedom rights of a teacher it fired after they refused to allow the teacher to refer to students by their last names alone, demanding the teacher exclusively use transgender students’ chosen first names and pronouns, a divided federal appeals panel has ruled.
And the ruling could essentially allow public schools to steamroll the religious rights of educators who may object to school policies related to the treatment of LGBTQ students and issues, a judge warned.
On April 7, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago sided 2-1 with the Brownsburg Community School Corporation in its legal fight with music teacher John Kluge.
Brownsburg Community School Corp. is a K-12 public school district located in the northwest suburbs of Indianapolis.
In the ruling, the majority said they believed the potential for “emotional harm” and potential “disruptions to the learning environment” at a public school outweigh the religious rights of teachers, because such disruptions amount to an “undue burden” on school districts by interfering with the business and purpose of the school.
The majority opinion was authored by Seventh Circuit Judge Ilana D. Rovner; Judge Amy J. St. Eve concurred.
“A practice that indisputably caused emotional harm to students and disruptions to the learning environment is an undue hardship to a school as a matter of law,” wrote Judge Rovner in the majority opinion.
“… Education is, indeed, the business of every school. Thus, emotional harm to students and disruptions to the learning environment are objectively more than de minimis or slight burdens to schools.”
In dissent, Circuit Judge Michael B. Brennan said his colleagues are wrong to deny Kluge the opportunity to present his claims of religious discrimination to a jury.
Brennan said the majority’s opinion all but strips schools of any obligation to honor the religious rights of cultural minorities, like Kluge, as required under Title VII, the federal civil right law outlawing discrimination on the basis of religion.
“… The purpose of Title VII is to protect minorities against those who disagree with their beliefs,” Brennan wrote. “Under the majority opinion, if some people – on this record, at most a few transgender students in Kluge’s classes – say they are offended, the protected religious adherent has no right to a reasonable accommodation.”
Kluge sued the Brownsburg district in 2019, after he was fired from his job as the only music and orchestra teacher at Brownsburg High School.
Kluge had held that position since 2014. However, he came under scrutiny from school district officials, including Brownsburg High School Principal Bret Draghe and district superintendent Jim Snapp, during the 2017-2018 school year.
In that school year, the Brownsburg district, ostensibly out of concern for the “significant challenges” faced at the high school by a growing number of transgender students, instituted new policies. Among these, the district required teachers to call all students by the first names and preferred pronouns listed in their official student database, known as PowerSchool.
Under the school policy at the time, students wishing to change their names, gender markers and preferred pronouns in the database must submit two letters, one from their parents and another from a “healthcare professional regarding the need for the changes.”
However, Kluge objected to the policy, saying it conflicted with his religious convictions. He said his understanding of Christian doctrine, as explained in the Bible, led him to believe that complying with the policy regarding transgender students would essentially be encouraging children to sin.
Kluge requested an accommodation under Title VII, allowing him to instead refer to students exclusively by their last names. In the decision, the judges said Kluge likened it to the way athletic coaches might refer to their players.
School officials initially granted the arrangement.
However, they retracted that agreement, allegedly after receiving complaints from transgender students and others from the Equality Alliance, an LGBTQ affinity club at Brownsburg High School.
According to the decision, the students allegedly claimed allowing Kluge to use their last names all but singled them out, because “all the students knew why Kluge had switch to using their last names.”
The court record indicates a group of at least five teachers also complained about Kluge, asserting his practice of calling students by their last names “was causing harm to students.”
Following those complaints, district officials informed Kluge and the district’s other teachers they were retracting the accommodation. In a document distributed to teachers, school officials told faculty “when you work in a public school, you sign up to follow the law and the policies/practices of that organization and that might mean following practices that are different than your beliefs.”
School officials allegedly told Kluge directly that his “last-names-only practice” was “detrimental to kids” and he would be expected to comply with school policy, resign or be fired.
While there is some dispute over whether Kluge was actually fired or resigned, the record indicates he was ultimately forced from his job over the dispute.
When the case landed in federal district court in Indianapolis, U.S. District Judge Magnus-Stinson sided with the school district, determining Kluge’s request for accommodation on the student-name policy amounted to an undue burden on the school district’s ability to educate students.
On appeal, judges Rovner and St. Eve agreed.
From their view, they said, the district’s decision to force out Kluge was justified solely because students were allegedly harmed, and the learning environment disrupted by Kluge’s refusal to violate his religious convictions.
“Whether his motive was religious, ideological, grammatical or otherwise was irrelevant because it was the practice, not the unknown motive that caused the reported harms,” Rovner wrote in the majority opinion.
“… The last-names-only practice conflicted with the school’s philosophy of affirming and respecting all students because the undisputed evidence showed that the accommodation resulted in students feeling disrespected, targeted, and dehumanized, and in disruptions to the learning environment. Title VII does not require the school to adopt an accommodation that, although facially neutral, does not work that way in practice.
“… Title VII does not require an employer to retain an employee who harms the employer’s mission.”
In dissent, Brennan criticized his colleagues’ reasoning, saying they all but ignored Kluge’s side of the story, and evidence and testimony submitted on his behalf.
Brennan noted the other two judges discounted Kluge’s testimony that school officials berated him for his beliefs, and questioned his faith.
Further, they ignored testimony from three students and another teacher who called Kluge a “great” teacher, and all asserted Kluge’s practices did not destroy the classroom environment, as the Equality Alliance students claimed.
Brennan said there remains an open question over how to balance the demands and needs of LGBTQ students and the religious rights of teachers under both school policies and federal law. That question, Brennan said, should have gone to trial.
“The evidence shows that student complaints of offense at Kluge’s last-names-only practice came not from any discomfort with the practice itself but from students’ assumptions and intuitions about why Kluge was using only last names,” Brennan wrote in the dissent. “Neither this nor any other court has held that mere offense at an employee’s religious observance or practice is enough for undue hardship.
“… The majority opinion breaks new ground here.”
Kluge has been represented in the case by attorneys John J. Bursch and Rory T. Gray, of the Alliance Defending Freedom, of Washington, D.C., and Lawrenceville, Georgia; and Michael J. Cork, of Indianapolis.
The Brownsburg district has been represented by attorneys Brent R. Borg and Alexander P. Pinegar, of the firm of Church, Church Hittle + Antrim, of Fishers and Noblesville, Indiana.