Kansas teacher wins federal case, will not be forced to use students' preferred pronouns

After a months long battle, Pamela Ricard has won her battle against transgender-accommodating policies being implemented in public schools across the nation.

Ricard was reprimanded in April of 2021 for failure to use a student's preferred pronouns, despite the school not having an official policy on preferred pronoun use at the time. The school later implemented various policies on the issue after Ricard was reprimanded.

Ricard sued the school after she was reprimanded, citing that her First and Fourteenth Amendment rights had been violated. In May of 2022, Ricard received a ruling by a federal court that her termination for failing to use students' preferred pronouns was unconstitutional.

The decision rendered the termination unconstitutional because her refusal to use the pronouns was based on her religious beliefs, specifically Christianity. This she cited as the reason she could not be compelled to adhere to the school’s demand, which was to call students by names or pronouns that were inconsistent with their biological sex.