A high school track coach who was fired for defending women’s sports is taking his employer to court to get his job back.
John Parks, who's been a track and field coach in Oregon for 40 years, wrote an open letter proposing a separate division for gender-confused athletes so they wouldn’t have an unfair advantage in girls’ state track and field competitions. But despite his attempt to remain inclusive to “transgender” players, the leftists running Lake Oswego’s School board didn’t like his nuanced idea.
Out of retaliation, they fired him in July for “harassing transgender athletes at recent track meets,” an accusation that Parks denies, according to the Daily Wire.
But the coach wasn’t just going to sit down and surrender the sport he loves.
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With the help of the Liberty Justice Center, Parks is now suing the school district for violating his First Amendment rights.
“School employees do not lose their constitutional right to free speech when they step onto school grounds,” Buck Dougherty, Senior Counsel at the Liberty Justice Center, wrote, adding, “Coach Parks faced unjust and unconstitutional retaliation at the hands of the Lake Oswego School District and School Board. We urge the court to grant a preliminary injunction to uphold his First Amendment rights.”
The center filed a motion on Monday, demanding the district rehires Parks. They included declarations from multiple parents whose children he coached in 2024, reiterating the motion’s demand.
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