Three teachers on Wednesday filed a alleging a new state law restricting titles and pronouns at schools unconstitutionally discriminates against transgender and nonbinary educators.
The lawsuit is the latest challenge to a series of measures, championed by Gov. Ron DeSantis and passed by the Republican-controlled Legislature, that have targeted transgender children and adults and other LGBTQ people.
The case focuses on a part of a 2023 law that says a school employee 鈥渕ay not provide to a student his or her preferred personal title or pronouns if such preferred personal title or pronouns do not correspond to his or her sex.鈥�
The plaintiffs in the lawsuit are transgender teachers in Hillsborough and Lee counties and a nonbinary teacher who was fired by Florida Virtual School in October after refusing to drop the title 鈥淢x.鈥� and the pronouns 鈥渢hey/them.鈥�
The law 鈥渄iscriminates against transgender and nonbinary public-school employees and contractors on the basis of sex, by prohibiting them from using the titles and pronouns that express who they are,鈥� attorneys for the plaintiffs wrote.
The pronoun and title prohibitions also violate the employees鈥� First Amendment rights and civil rights laws, the lawsuit said.
The new law 鈥渞equires plaintiffs to shed their titles and pronouns at the schoolhouse gate because they are not the titles and pronouns that Florida prefers for the sex it deems them to be,鈥� attorneys for the plaintiffs argued.
The lawsuit, filed in the federal Northern District of Florida, asks Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker to block the law from being enforced and award compensation to the teachers.
The plaintiffs are Lennard High School teacher Katie Wood; a Lee County teacher identified as 鈥淛ane Doe;鈥� and AV Schwandes, a nonbinary Orange County teacher who was fired by Florida Virtual School in October.
Defendants include state Education Commissioner Manny Diaz, the Department of Education, the State Board of Education and its seven members, other state education officials and the school boards in Lee and Hillsborough counties.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of the teachers by lawyers for the Southern Poverty Law Center, Southern Legal Counsel, Inc., and San Francisco-based Altshuler Berzon LLP.
It alleges the law violates the First Amendment because it prohibits transgender and nonbinary school employees from using the titles and pronouns 鈥渢hat express who they are,鈥� treating them differently from colleagues.
鈥淔lorida has stigmatized plaintiffs, threatened their psychological well-being, upended the respect that is owed to them as educators and that is necessary for a safe workplace and functioning classroom, and put their professions and families鈥� well-being on the line. Florida鈥檚 statute must give way to the Constitution and laws of the United States and must not be enforced,鈥� the plaintiffs鈥� lawyers wrote in the 61鈥損age complaint.
The reach of the law, the plaintiffs contend, is not limited to school campuses and 鈥渁pplies wherever, whenever, and however an employee interacts with students.鈥�
Before signing the bill in May, DeSantis criticized how pronouns were being used in schools.
鈥淲e never did this through all of human history until like, what, two weeks ago? Now this is something, they鈥檙e having third-graders declare pronouns? We鈥檙e not doing the pronoun Olympics in Florida. It鈥檚 not happening here,鈥� DeSantis said.
But the lawsuit argued that DeSantis and his allies enacted the measures 鈥渁t least in part because of, not merely in spite of, the adverse effects they would have 鈥� both individually and in the aggregate 鈥� on LGBTQ+ people, especially transgender and nonbinary people, in various aspects of life.鈥�
DeSantis鈥� office and the Department of Education did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit.
The law targeted in the case also included an expansion of a controversial 2022 measure, which critics dubbed 鈥渄on鈥檛 say gay,鈥� that restricted instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in schools. The 2023 law also bolstered another contentious 2022 law that ramped up scrutiny of instructional materials and school-library books.
The new case only challenges the part of the law restricting the use of titles and pronouns.
Under that part of the law, school superintendents could lose their salaries for a year if they receive complaints about potential violations and do not report it to the Department of Education.
Misgendering a person by using the incorrect pronouns or titles 鈥渃an cause that person psychological distress and feelings of stigma. So can prohibiting a person from going by titles and pronouns that express the person鈥檚 gender identity,鈥� lawyers for the plaintiffs wrote.
Wood, who has worked as a teacher in Hillsborough County since 2021, transitioned as a woman around 2020, had her name legally changed and lives as a woman, the lawsuit said. The state issued a teaching certificate in her legal name, Katie Wood. According to the lawsuit, county officials initially 鈥渨ere supportive of her transgender status and her female gender identity and expression.鈥�
Since the law went into effect, the principal at Wood鈥檚 school and the county school board told her she could no longer be called 鈥淢s.鈥� because 鈥渉er sex is deemed male.鈥� The officials told Wood she could use the titles 鈥淢r.,鈥� 鈥淭eacher,鈥� or 鈥淐oach.鈥�
鈥淕oing by titles like Mr. and pronouns like he and him would harm Ms. Wood, including emotionally, risk physical harm from others, and disrupt her classroom and ability to do her job. Avoiding titles and pronouns altogether would be impractical, disruptive, and stigmatizing,鈥� the lawsuit said.
Wood adopted the title 鈥淭eacher,鈥� but the lawsuit alleged the title has negatively affected her ability to teach and is a distraction to students.
The three teachers have also filed discrimination complaints with federal labor officials.
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