An Ohio school district is being sued by a national conservative “parents’ rights” group for the school’s anti-harassment policies designed to protect LGBTQ+ students.
Parents Defending Education (PDE), an organization bankrolled by ultra-wealthy conservatives that has targeted schools around the country, filed the lawsuit against the Olentangy Local School District on Thursday in the U.S. District Court in the Southern District of Ohio.
The lawsuit alleges that the Delaware County school district in central Ohio unconstitutionally forbids free speech and compels other speech by having policies against intentionally misgendering students.
A spokesperson for Olentangy schools told NBC4 the district has not yet been served the suit and is unable to comment.
According to the lawsuit, PDE is a membership organization “whose members include both parents with children in the District and students themselves.” Further, they say that those parents and students have the “fundamental right” to believe that sex is immutable and to label other students in any way they so believe – in pronouns or names – without fear of punishment.
“Being forced to express such speech would contradict their deeply held beliefs, including sincerely held religious beliefs,” the lawsuit states.
PDE contends that they represent Parents A-D, four parents in the district who must use pseudonyms for “fear that if their identities are discovered, they or their children will suffer retaliation.”
The lawsuit states that these parents and their children bear LGBTQ+ students
no ill will.” They “just want to express their deeply held views.”
These unidentified parents and students also take exception with anti-bullying and anti-harassment policies that include off-campus and cellphone behavior.
This is one of many lawsuits PDE has filed across the country, including a lawsuit against a school in Iowa for not forcibly outing LGBTQ+ students to their parents, and lawsuits against schools in West Virginia and Connecticut for allowing trans students to compete in sports consistent with their gender identity.
PDE has also filed over a dozen lawsuits against schools that implement programs to academically support students of color.
In February, PDE took aim at The Calculus Project, a Massachusetts-based program that aims to “increase the representation and success of Black, Hispanic, Indigenous, People of Color and low-income students in advanced mathematics.”
Despite the fact that “any student between grades 8 and 12 can apply to participate” in the program and that 20% of the enrollees are white, PDE has alleged that the program is an example of racial segregation. 🔥
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