Kansas Gubernatorial Candidate Derek Schmidt: Teachers Should Not Keep Secrets from Parents

Kansas school officials agreed this week to pay a teacher $95,000 for violating her First Amendment rights, after they suspended her for refusing to use a student’s preferred pronouns and forced her to conceal the student’s transgenderism from parents.

Kansas Attorney General and gubernatorial candidate Derek Schmidt celebrated the teacher’s victory on Friday, and his office slammed incumbent Gov. Laura Kelly (D) for allowing far-left gender ideology to infiltrate Kansas schools on her watch.

“In America, when the First Amendment meets woke ideology, the First Amendment wins. And teachers should not be ordered to withhold information about a student from the child’s parents,” Schmidt said, his office questioning whether Kelly will “continue to side with the most extreme elements of the Democrat Party?”

Former Fort Riley Middle School math teacher Pamela Ricard sued the Geary County School District in March because she says she was suspended for three days in April 2021 for calling a student by their legal name rather than their preferred one, according to the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), The district also had a policy – which has since been revoked — that mandated teachers hide students’ “social transition” from parents unless given permission by students to share.

Ricard said the policy violated her conscience, and in May, a federal judge allowed her lawsuit to go forward, “finding that she was likely to prevail on her First Amendment free exercise of religion claim,” according to the ADF. The court also granted her motion to halt the district’s policy forcing teachers to keep secrets from parents. After reaching a settlement, the ADF filed a dismissal of the case on Wednesday.

“This case provides straightforward lessons for Kansas school boards: Schools shouldn’t lie to parents and teachers don’t forfeit their constitutional rights at the schoolhouse door,” said Joshua Ney, partner at Kriegshauser Ney Law Group. He went on:

The Geary County School District unsuccessfully tried to convince a federal court that a teacher should completely avoid using a child’s name during a parent teacher conference in order to hide new names and genders being used by the school for a child in a classroom. Absurdity and deception has its limits, especially in federal court. I’m glad the case clarifies the financial stakes for school boards if they attempt to force teachers to lie to parents about their students.

Attorney General Schmidt often criticizes Gov. Kelly for her education policies, which will likely be a big point of debate leading up to the November election. He noted that Gov. Kelly vetoed a Parents Bill of Rights in April, which would have required Kansas school districts to keep parents informed about school instruction materials. He has also recently criticized Kelly for vetoing the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act, which would bar males from playing on female sports’ teams sponsored by public educational institutions.

Schmidt appeared with former University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines, who swam against Lia Thomas, at the Johnson County Republican Party on Thursday to denounce Kelly’s transgender agenda and promised to sign the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act if he is elected in November.

“It is apparent why this is such an important issue for so many people all around our state,” Schmidt said. “It’s an issue that Republicans, Democrats, independent voters all talk with me about and overwhelmingly share the view that it’s just a common-sense matter,” he said.