Pamela Ricard, a former teacher - now retired - sued the school where she worked when she was reprimanded and suspended for three days in March 2021 for addressing a student by her last name and refusing to use her preferred pronouns.
Ricard reached a settlement with Geary County, Kansas, and will be awarded $95,000 in damages. In a statement, her attorneys, who belong to the Alliance Defending Freedom, announced that Fort Riley High School officials:
Agreed to pay $95,000 in damages and attorneys' fees for violating a math teacher's First Amendment rights by reprimanding and suspending her for addressing a student by his legally enrolled last name and forcing her to conceal the student's social transition from the student’s parents.
Unjust suspension
Pamela Ricard had taught at Fort Riley High School since 2005. In 2021 she received her first suspension - in an intimidating manner - for addressing a female student as a Miss -the noun accurate to the student's biological sex-, when she preferred to be referred to with masculine pronouns. Neither the school nor the district had a formal policy on gender pronouns at the time.
According to the lawsuit, a school counselor had told Ricard via email that the student preferred to be called by an alternate first name and the use of the pronoun "he." The teacher decided to address the student from that moment on as "Miss (legal last name)" claiming respectful language, and without compromising her own religious beliefs. Ricard's attorneys said the school district also forced the teacher to hide the student's social transition from the student’s parents.
A week after Ricard returned from her suspension, the county implemented a Board of Education-approved policy that "employees should be aware of and make an effort to use pronouns by which a person wants to be identified."
Ricard's attorneys stated that any policy requiring her to refer to a student with a "gendered, non-binary, plural pronoun or other gendered language that is different from the student's biological sex" actively violates her religious beliefs.
Ricard believes that God assigns gender at birth and any policy that requires her to use language different from the student's biological sex actively violates her religious beliefs..... The district did not then have a formal policy on the use of preferred names and pronouns by students at the time Ms. Ricard was suspended, but she was still reprimanded under the generic school district policies related to harassment by staff.
Case resolution
Ricard's lawyers said that when a federal judge allowed the lawsuit to go forward, the court gave Ricard permission to "continue to address students by their preferred names, while avoiding pronouns - even if they have requested them - incompatible with their biological sex." In addition, she will be awarded $95,000 in damages from the county.
From Alliance Defending Freedom they called the agreement with Fort Riley Middle School officials a "victory for free speech in public schools."
"This case provides direct lessons for Kansas school boards: schools should not lie to parents and teachers should not lose their constitutional rights, nor their religious beliefs at the schoolhouse door," said Joshua Ney, a partner at Kriegshauser Ney Law Group.
