Allison Roberts, a mother of two schoolchildren in Oregon, is suing Portland Public School and one of its elementary school principals for retaliating against her constitutionally-protected free speech objecting to the promoting of transgender and intersex-inclusive ideology conflicting with her Christian religious beliefs.
According to the complaint filed Wednesday by the Liberty Justice Center on behalf of Roberts, the retaliation violated the First Amendment because it was an effort to prevent the mother from voicing her beliefs:
“Defendants Portland Public Schools, Director Chandra Wilson-Cooper, and Principal Deanne Froehlich took offense at Plaintiff Allison Roberts’s speech opposing the introduction of ‘trans’ ideology at her children’s school.
“Allison spoke out because she wanted to raise her children according to her Christian faith. Defendants’ motivation in issuing trespass orders, vilifying Allison publicly, and launching an official investigation was to silence Allison.”
“Allison has the right to criticize the policies and actions of Defendants, even if they find her views offensive,” the lawsuit explains. “Additionally, Defendants’ characterization of Allison’s speech as ‘harassment’ under overbroad and vague policies constitutes an independent violation of the First Amendment.”
The suit alleges that Roberts’ Fourteenth Amendment rights were also violated:
“Defendants violated the First and Fourteenth Amendments by failing to give Allison notice of the introduction of ‘trans’ ideology to her children and subjecting them to a secret gender transition policy.”
The ordeal centers on two letters Roberts distributed while standing on a public street in front of the school. In the first, Roberts voiced her concerns that the school:
- Was promoting and teaching transgender/gender identity and intersectional ideology.
- Did so without parental notification, consent or option to exclude children based on religious beliefs.
- Distributed “identity flowers” to student children and forced them to publicly declare and discuss “what gender feels right to you today.”
- Taught lessons on the use of “puberty-blockers for transgender youth.”
- Created a “host of other gender and identity-based political curricula” that contradict her religious beliefs.
While she was handing out her first letter, Roberts was accosted on the sidewalk by a parent who asked her if she had voted for Donald Trump and, when she said she had, he began screaming “White people are disgusting!”
The school used Roberts’ engagement in the argument to rationalize issuing a trespass order against her, but chose not to discipline the man who accosted her and shouted racial slurs.
Her second letter explained how the school had unjustly issued a one-year trespass order against her for distributing the first letter disagreeing with school practices and policies.
In retaliation for her free speech, the complaint explains, the school:
- Had police serve her with a one-year trespassing order, claiming that her constitutionally-protected free speech disagreeing with school policy was “harmful, unlawful and/or disruptive behavior” that created a “safety concern.”
- Refused to clarify how her speech was such and violated the school’s vaguely-worded anti-harassment policy.
- Discriminated in its enforcement of the policy by refusing to discipline the other parent, who had screamed actual incendiary rhetoric at the same place outside the school as Roberts.
- Emailed a letter to the community trashing the mother’s character and accusing her of engaging in “harassment, intimidation, and threatening behavior” as part of a pattern of “animus and harassment targeting vulnerable members of our community” for the “past several months.”
- Sent a second email to the community claiming that the mother’s speech in the second letter she distributed was “antithetical to everything we stand for as a community” and “continued harassment.”
- Warned Roberts that it would make her one-year ban from school property permanent, if she continued to voice opinions with which the school disagrees.
By condemning the comments in Roberts’ letter as “antithetical to everything we stand for as a community,” the school appears to have admitted that it was trying to stifle her viewpoint.
What’s more, when Roberts requested a hearing to appeal the trespass order, the school conducted a transparently sham hearing, the lawsuit explains.
The hearing was conducted via a Zoom call with a panel consisting of a basketball coach and two janitors – one of which was in the process of actively dumping garbage cans. The hearing did not include any witnesses or provide any examples of the alleged harassment.
The next day, Roberts was informed that her appeal had been denied.
Read more about the case on the Liberty Justice Center website.
