More and more, it looks like the whole "pronoun" thing is getting to be past its sell-by date. We might note that a lot of these aren't even proper pronouns. I'm not sure which is more ridiculous: Someone claiming their pronouns are Xi, or Xer, or Geewhizflippityfloop, or someone claiming They/Them, as though they are somehow a plural.
School districts, sadly, have been some of the worst in enforcing this nonsense. But we're seeing some return to good sense; in just such a case, in a decision rendered Thursday, a federal court has struck down an Ohio school district's policies on gendered language.
A federal appeals court ruled Thursday that an Ohio school district violated students’ free speech rights by enforcing policies that restricted gendered language in classrooms.
The Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the Olentangy Local School District, near Columbus, cannot punish students for using gender-specific language, even if some find it offensive.
Parents Defending Education, a national parental rights organization, sued the district in 2023, arguing its pronoun mandate violated students’ First and Fourteenth Amendment rights. District officials maintained the policies were designed to curb bullying and promote inclusion.
In its majority opinion, the court said the district "fell far short" of showing that allowing such speech would cause disruption or infringe on others’ rights.
To a layman, it seems like such a policy would, in fact, infringe on the rights of the students and, presumably, the parents and faculty, who refuse to deny reality and call an obvious boy or girl something that just plain isn't the case.
The decision overturns a 2024 ruling from a separate Sixth Circuit panel that had sided with the district. The case now returns to U.S. District Judge Algenon Marbley in Columbus, who must issue an injunction blocking enforcement of the policy.
District rules discouraged students from using language related to gender that could be seen as disrespectful or demeaning, and urged them to use classmates’ self-identified pronouns instead.
One has to wonder where the Olentangy Local School District was thinking of drawing the line, here.
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At some point, after all, it's necessary to admit that things have gone too far. First, it's a boy identifying as a girl, then a girl as a boy, then your kid is telling you about a classmate who insists on their pronouns being phlogiston/hemophilia.
In the case of this decision, the school district in question even tried to take their pronoun enforcement off-campus:
A separate policy governing students’ use of personal devices extended those restrictions beyond school grounds, prohibiting content that could be interpreted as harassing or disparaging toward others’ gender identity or sexual orientation.
It remains unclear how widely the ruling will apply. An Ohio teachers’ union told the court that Olentangy’s policies resemble those in other districts across the state.
That seems far, far beyond any rightful function of a school district. Fortunately, the Sixth Circuit is returning a measure of sanity to this whole discussion. Now the matter goes back to the U.S. District judge.
Stay tuned for further developments.
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