Pamela Ricard was suspended for three days and reprimanded for ‘bullying by staff’ after using the prefix “Ms.” to address a biologically female student who identified as male, despite the student never formally requesting to be called differently.
Despite the lack of an official school policy on “gender identity” designations at the time, a math teacher in Kansas is suing Fort Riley Middle School for disciplining her for referring to a gender-dysphoric pupil by her real sex.
According to the Daily Caller, Pamela Ricard claims she was suspended for three days and given an official reprimand in April 2021 for addressing a biologically female student who identified as male with the prefix “Ms.” despite the student never explicitly requesting to be addressed otherwise. Ricard was accused of “bullying by staff,” although the school did not have a policy in place at the time regarding pupils’ preferred names or pronouns.
Following the event, the school issued staff training documents on “Gender Identity and Gender Expression,” which included instructions on how to “Use Preferred Names and Pronouns.” Ricard responded by requesting a religious accommodation “regarding any school policy that requires a teacher or school employee to actively state or otherwise use a student’s or any other person’s preferred pronouns or other gendered language when different from the student’s or person’s biological sex,” claiming that addressing students “by a gendered, non-binary, or plural pronoun” would be in violation of her Christian faith.
Both her religious accommodation request and her effort to appeal her earlier penalty were unanimously denied by the local school board in September. The school announced its new policy a month later, stating that pupils “shall be called by their preferred name and pronouns.” This means that if a student requests that a staff member refer to them by a name other than their legal name as recorded in Skyward, the staff person(s) will honor the student’s request and refer to them by the designated preferred name.”
According to The Lion, the school and district “now threaten to punish Ms. Ricard again if she continues to refuse to use a student’s preferred pronouns, express her views through silence or neutral language, or even engage in a neutral policy of referring to students by their enrolled last names or other gender-neutral language.”
“Ms. Ricard believes that, because of the difficulty of assessing matters of gender identity and the long-term irreversible consequences of certain treatments for transgender-identifying people, including puberty blockers, hormone replacement therapy, and sex-reassignment surgery, children should not be encouraged to undertake social or medical transition because of their inability to assess long-term consequences,” the complaint adds. Further, “parents have a fundamental right to control the upbringing and education of their children,” and that “any gender-identity education policy must account for this fundamental right.”
Ricard, who is represented by Kriegshauser Ney Law Group, claims that school administrators have infringed on her constitutional rights to free speech, religious expression, due process, and equal treatment under the law. She and her lawyers are seeking a declaratory judgment affirming that assessment, as well as injunctions against additional infringements of her rights, removal of the matter from her disciplinary record, monetary damages, and attorneys’ fees.
According to modern biology, sex is rooted in an individual’s chromosomes and reflected by hundreds of genetic traits. Coercing Christians and Jews to recognize gender dysphoria as “gender identity” not only denies scientific reality, but it also coerces Christians and Jews to contradict Genesis 1:27, which teaches that God created both sexes in His image.
A range of scientific literature indicates that gender confusion in adolescence normally resolves on its own by maturity, and that indulgence rarely prevents – or even prolongs – substantial mental and emotional harm, including attempted suicide. (with or without surgery), because focusing on “gender affirmation” can divert attention away from other concerns that could be causing a patient’s mental or emotional distress.
