What the Brownsburg Community School Corporation in Indiana did to John Kluge cost them $650,000.
The school district created a “transgender” policy in 2017 that requires teachers to lie and refer to male students by feminine pronouns, and vice versa. Teachers also must use “preferred” names.
Kluge, a music teacher and a Christian, offered a compromise: he’d refer to all students by their last names and receive a religious accommodation to cover everything else. Kluge got his accommodation. But students and teachers complained. The school revoked the accommodation, and Kluge was forced to resign.
Brownsburg High School made a costly mistake. If only they understood religious freedom, they’d have saved taxpayers money.
Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) filed a lawsuit on Kluge’s behalf, and the school district tried to squirm out of a trial. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit wasn’t having it. The court ruled last August that the school district must face a jury trial.
The Brownsburg Community School Corporation thought better of that idea and decided to settle the lawsuit.
“After almost five and a half years, common sense has prevailed at Brownsburg,” said David Cortman, ADF senior counsel and vice president of U.S. Litigation. “This settlement confirms what the law has always said: Public schools cannot force teachers to violate their religious beliefs.”
As Cortman noted, violating an employee’s religious freedom is illegal…and expensive.
“We hope this settlement shows teachers that they do not have to bow the knee to ideological mandates that violate their religious beliefs.”
Photo credit: Alliance Defending Freedom
Awesome!