Escondido, CA—Teachers do not forfeit basic civil liberties guaranteed to all citizens when entering the arena of public education. In fact, public school districts are required by both federal and state law to reasonably accommodate the sincerely held religious beliefs, observances and practices of teachers, unless the accommodation subjects the district to an undue hardship—a significant burden or expense. In so doing, employers must accept a teacher’s religious beliefs at face value, unless they have an objective basis for questioning them. Once notified of a bona fide religious objection, districts must engage the teacher in a meaningful, interactive process to explore whether accommodation is feasible. Districts should accommodate conscientious religious objectors.
The right of teachers to be religiously accommodated is especially important now that many California school districts like Escondido Unified School District (EUSD) have in recent years adopted policies regarding students experiencing gender dysphoria at school that undermine parents and families. Escondido’s AR 5145.3, for example, is the same or similar policy that most districts across California have recently adopted. Among other things, AR 5145.3 requires teachers to withhold from parents and guardians information about a minor child’s divergent gender expression at school, including secretly using a child’s preferred name or pronouns—without parental notification or consent.
Ramona Garcia, a Christian who teaches at an EUSD middle school, has deeply held biblical beliefs about human sexuality that do not permit her to, in good conscience, conceal information or lie to parents regarding their child’s health, safety and welfare nor use inappropriate pronouns or names for students struggling with gender dysphoria. After a union representative misled her by proclaiming that she didn’t have any legal rights as a Christian teacher working for the government, Ramona contacted the National Center for Law & Policy because of our extensive experience with workplace religious accommodation issues. Ramona retained the NCLP to represent her regarding her desire to seek religious accommodation regarding EUSD’s gender policies. After receiving the NCLP’s legal demand for religious accommodation, EUSD requested a meeting wherein EUSD immediately agreed to reasonably accommodate Ramona’s Christian religious beliefs, observances and practices regarding human sexuality.
EUSD is the same district where a federal judge, the Honorable Roger Benitez recently enjoined the imposition of its unconstitutional gender policy, AR 5145.3, to two Christian teachers, ordering the district to stop harassing the teachers with specious “investigations” and get them back to work. In Mirabelli v. Olson, Judge Benitez’s well-reasoned and powerful order found that EUSD’s constitutionally repugnant AR 5145.3 created a “trifecta of harm” against EUSD’s parents, students and teachers. As the court held, EUSD’s policy violates both the teachers’ First Amendment right to religious free exercise in the workplace as well as the fundamental Fourteenth Amendment right of parents to direct the care, education and raising of their children.
Children belong to their family, not the state. Indeed, the U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly recognized that parents and guardians have a fundamental constitutional right to direct the care, education and raising of minor children under their care. Even in uber-liberal California, mandatory parental notification regarding a minor’s expressed gender dysphoria at school is actually not politically controversial. Recent polling has documented that solid majorities of voters across the political spectrum in the Golden State affirm parental notification.
“I am so grateful for the good work of the NCLP and for attorney Dean Broyles,” stated Ramona Garcia. “He knew exactly what to do to resolve my dilemma and was able to effectively advocate for me when I didn’t know what to do. Dean quickly convinced EUSD’s legal counsel and Human Resources Department to honor and respect by Christian beliefs. Because of the NCLP, I can keep my faith and my job.”
“I am so proud of our client, Ramona Garcia, the two Mirabelli plaintiffs and their legal team for boldly standing up to the state’s coercive and bullying sexual-industrial complex,” stated Dean Broyles. “The gender emperor has no clothes—and more and more people are realizing that fact every day. Today, I am calling on all faithful teachers across California to find their spiritual spine and take a clear, bold and courageous stand for their religious civil liberties. California is now on notice. Teachers with religious beliefs about human sexuality that conflict with the state’s misguided sexual orthodoxy will no longer be forced to choose between their faith and their jobs. No longer can they be threatened to cower and bow down to or submit to this twisted gender idol out of fear of losing their employment so that they can continue to feed their families.”
Broyles continued, “A public school teacher’s deeply held religious beliefs are well-protected both by the First Amendment’s religious Free Exercise Clause and federal and state workplace religious accommodation statutes. Educators deserve to have their sincerely held beliefs about human sexuality honored and respected by the state—not marginalized and silenced. They should never be bullied or cowered into silence and complicity by an overreaching and out-of-control government. If we are going to remain a free republic, public educators must never be forced by the state to live by such pernicious lies, including the insane idea that minor children, whose pre-frontal cortexes are not fully developed, should be able to secretly choose their gender and start transitioning without full parental knowledge and consent.”
Action Item: Encourage the public school teachers you know and love to contact the National Center for Law & Policy (https://nclplaw.org/) for assistance in seeking reasonable religious accommodation from misguided state and local mandates regarding gender issues.
Dean Broyles Esq. 