A federal appeals court on Friday upheld a lower court’s ruling that it was lawful for a school district in Indiana to fire a music teacher who refused to call students by their preferred gender pronouns and names.
John Kluge, a former music theory and orchestra teacher at Brownsburg High School, was ordered in 2017 to use students’ names and pronouns based on their new gender identity registered in the school’s database. Citing his Christian beliefs, Kluge requested a religious accommodation by referring to all students only by their surnames, to which the school district officials initially agreed.
However, after a few teachers and students complained about the last-names-only compromise, the school district decided no exceptions to its “transgender affirmation” policies were allowed beginning the 2018-2019 school year, revoked Kluge’s religious accommodation. He was forced to resign in order to live by his beliefs.
Represented by conservative Christian legal group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), Kluge sued the Brownsburg Community School Corporation (BCSC) in 2019, alleging a violation of his civil rights under Title VII, the federal law that prohibits employers from discriminating against individuals because of their religion.
In 2021, a U.S. District Court ruled in favor of the BCSC, concluding that the school was unable to accommodate Kluge’s religious beliefs without imposing an “undue hardship” on its mission to educate all students, and that the teacher failed to show evidence of being forced to resign as a result of not being granted accommodations.
“It is not unreasonable for a school to expect that its instructors will teach classes in a professional manner that does not distress students, and nothing in the record suggests that BCSC officials were acting with any motive other than to ensure such was the case,” the district court said.
“Brownsburg has demonstrated as a matter of law that the requested accommodation worked an undue burden on the school’s educational mission by harming transgender students and negatively impacting the learning environment for transgender students, for other students in Kluge’s classes and in the school generally, and for faculty,” the court’s opinion read.
The opinion was penned by Judge Ilana Ronver, a George H. W. Bush appointee. It was fully shared by Judge Amy St. Eve and partially joined by Judge Michael Brennan, both Trump appointees.
“The majority opinion downplays certain record evidence that, in my view, creates a genuine issue of material fact on undue hardship,” Brennan wrote in a separate opinion.
Specifically, Brennan took issue with his colleagues for overlooking testimonies of three of Kluge’s students and a fellow teacher, all of whom observed the orchestra classes in the 2017–2018 school year. They all testified that they never heard Kluge using gendered language in the classroom, nor did they see any animosity from the students toward him because of the last-name-only practice.
“I conclude that a genuine issue of material fact exists on undue hardship and would remand that issue for trial,” Brennan wrote.
The BCSC said they will not comment on pending litigation, while the ADF Senior Counsel Rory Gray said in a statement that they’re weighing their options.
“Congress passed Title VII to prevent employers from forcing workers to abandon their beliefs to keep their jobs,” Gray said.
“In this case, Mr. Kluge went out of his way to accommodate his students and treat them all with respect. The school district even permitted this accommodation before unlawfully punishing Mr. Kluge for his religious beliefs. We are evaluating next steps in this case.”
