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Small shelf featuring LGBTQIA books
An Ohio elementary teacher is flipping the script and using her religious beliefs against conservatives to support LGBTQ+ rights.
An Ohio teacher is suing her school district for infringing on her religious and moral beliefs by disciplining her for having books with LGBTQ+ characters in her classroom.
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Karen Cahall, who has worked at New Richmond Exempted Village School District for over 30 years as an elementary teacher, filed a lawsuit against the district last week after being subjected to "disciplinary proceedings" when a parent complained about four books she kept in her classroom – all age appropriate and not required reading – just because they had LGBTQ+ characters.
The lawsuit claims that Cahall was suspended three days without pay for "simply having in her possession in her classroom four books that had LGBTQ+ characters in the plot line, even though these particular books were intermingled among approximately one hundred other books, were not prominently displayed ... [Cahall] did not teach from those books as part of her instructional program, and did not require students to read those books."
"Former President Lyndon B. Johnson once stated that 'books and ideas are the most effective weapon against intolerance and ignorance,'" the filing reads, via the Cincinnati Enquirer. "This lawsuit seeks to test the strength of that premise in the face of increasing intolerance and prejudice against members of the LGBTQ+ community through censorship and book bans in our public schools that is motivated and guided solely by prejudice, ignorance, and unfounded fear."
The four books are Ana On The Edge by A.J. Sass, The Fabulous Zed Watson by Basil Sylvester, Hazel Bly and the Deep Blue Sea by Ashley Herring Blake, and Too Bright to See by Kyle Lukoff. None of the books contain sexual content, but rather characters who "are coming to terms with feeling different and excluded," according to the lawsuit.
The district has “controversial issues” policy that does allow teachers to address issues "likely to arouse both support and opposition in the community" so long as they are related to instruction and do not "tend to indoctrinate or persuade students to a particular point of view."
Cahall's suit argues that the policy "is so vague and all-encompassing that it could extend to virtually any topic upon which any two random individuals or groups of individuals might find something to disagree about, and therefore fails to provide people of ordinary intelligence a reasonable opportunity to understand what is or is not a 'controversial issue.'"
Cahall also accused the district of infringing on her "sincerely held moral and religious beliefs," flipping the script on conservative Christians who often use the religious freedom argument to discriminate against the LGBTQ+ community.
"Cahall maintained these books in her classroom amongst over one hundred other books spanning a wide variety of subject matters in furtherance of her sincerely held moral and religious beliefs that that all children, including children who are LGBTQ+ or the children of parents who are LGBTQ+, deserve to be respected, accepted, and loved for who they are," the suit continues."
"It is a fundamental constitutional principle that government at any level in our democracy – be it at the local, state or national level – must be neutral towards religion and diverse religious viewpoints, that government may not be hostile towards any religion or religious viewpoint and that it may not aid, foster, or promote one religion or religious viewpoint against another."
