Grants Pass Transgender Educator Activists Case In Federal Appeals Court

GRANTS PASS, Ore. — The case of Rachel Sager and Katie Medart, two educators who were fired after launching the I Resolve campaign, is being heard by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. On Monday, the Court heard oral arguments in their application to reinstate the lawsuit against Grants Pass School District 7.

Grants Pass Educators Fired

The school district initially fired Sager and Medart in 2021 after the “I Resolve” platform criticized the district’s policies, including the district’s stance on transgender bathroom access and pronoun use for transgender students. The movement has 5 points or resolutions that it brought into the public domain.

After their dismissal, the educators, who claimed the dismissal violated their First Amendment right to free speech and right to Equal Protection under the Fourteenth Amendment, instituted legal proceedings against the school district.

Represented by Mathew Hoffman, an attorney with Alliance Defending Freedom, the oral argument for the appeal revolved around freedom of speech. The attorney argued that the broad rule adopted by the defendants and the district court “will stop teachers from speaking out about almost any important issue.”

In the interim, a new school board majority reinstated the two educators, who were subsequently rehired.

Court Case: Grants Pass Teachers Who Spoke Out On Transgender Rights

In 2023, a district court ruled that the dismissal didn’t violate Medart and Sager’s constitutional rights. The school district said that the dismissal was a result of the educator’s activism, which broke district policies such as causing a disruption. The Judge concurred.

During Monday’s hearing, the attorney representing the school district, Beth Plass, said more than a hundred complaints from the community about the I Resolve campaign were received by the district. Plass submitted that the campaign would disrupt vulnerable transgender students in classrooms.

She also said that it would be reasonable to think that these children could have trouble connecting with their teachers, making it difficult to form a close personal relationship with that teacher.

The Appeals Court is expected to decide on whether or not to go forward with the suit within the following months.