Can three letters cost you your job? They can if they’re “s-h-e.” That’s the unbelievable drama playing out for the latest time in Kansas’s Fort Riley Middle School. When math teacher Pamela Ricard refused to use a boy’s name for a female student, the Geary County School District gave her a choice: embrace the lie or lose your job.

It’s a problem plaguing teachers across the country — the Nicolas Meriwethers, the Tanner Crosses, the Peter Vlamings, and now, 17-year classroom veteran Pamela Ricard. Where, exactly, is the line between a student’s decision to live out a transgender fantasy and a teacher’s moral right to reject it? “I love all my students,” Ricard insists, “but I shouldn’t be forced to contradict my core beliefs in order to teach math in a public school.” As a Christian, she believes what the Bible says: that God assigns gender at birth, and any policy that forces her to use names or language contrary to that is a violation of that religious conviction.

What’s especially interesting about this case is that the student never came to Ricard to tell her about her preferences — nor did the school have a policy ordering staff to honor them. This only came up because Ricard called her “miss” to get the girl’s attention in class — only to have another student email her and say that the girl now used “he/him” pronouns and a different first name. In an effort to walk that fine line, Ricard decided to call the girl by her legal last name, which infuriated the student who had emailed her. In a note left on Ricard’s desk, the classmate accused her of being “transphobic.” “My pronouns are he/they btw,” the message ended.

Later, after the students brought the complaint to administrators, Ricard was suspended for “bullying” and ignoring the general handbook on “diversity, inclusion, and staff-student relations.” A week later, the Fort Riley principal sent the faculty “new training and protocol materials” that ordered them to indulge whatever identity students concocted. Shocked, Ricard asked for a religious exemption. Three times her request was denied.

Now, faced with losing her job, Ricard is suing for the free speech the Constitution already gave her. “I continue to enjoy teaching my students day in and day out,” she told CNN, “but the stigma of being officially labeled a ‘bully’ simply for using a student’s enrolled last name has been disheartening.” Her attorney, Josh Ney, partner at Kriegshauser Ney Law Group, insists that this isn’t just about religious freedom or free speech but due process and equal protection as well. “This case really has to do with forcing teachers to be accomplices in promoting novel theories about gender identity that are based on advocates, political motives, and unfounded science.”

At the end of the day, Ney argued on “Washington Watch,” “This is not a free speech case about what Pam wants to say. It’s a compelled speech case about what the government can force Pam to say in the classroom. She’s a math teacher — and she wants to teach math. But unfortunately, the school’s actions in this case have made her an unwilling accomplice in a new speech code at the school.”

Making this whole debate even more infuriating is the fact that Ricard’s student didn’t legally change her name — and her parents never knew about their daughter’s new identity. It’s something the eighth grader decided on her own, and now every teacher is required to disregard reality and play along.

“Where does this stop?” Ney wanted to know. “This is a policy based on middle schoolers’ [and] high schoolers’ preferences. And these preferences are not preferences that are formally codified in the schools’ enrollment records. At the end of the day, [Ricard] was disciplined for her choice to use the last name of the student, a question that was contained in the enrollment records of the school. But the school said that was a violation.”

The longtime teacher even offered a compromise — a neutral policy that would satisfy her rights and respect the students’ wishes. “We think we came up with a pretty good [idea for] the school board, and they rejected it summarily,” Ney explained. “Ms. Ricard is trying to teach math, she’s trying to get through the day and, ultimately, that’s not good enough for the school. And so the fact that the neutral policy was rejected by the school board, I think shows that we’ve got far more work to do in explaining how the First Amendment and other constitutional principles inform school policy.”

Obviously, this school board — like so many others — isn’t interested in accommodating everyone’s interests or finding a workable solution. They’re interested in pushing a radical agenda, no matter how many lives and careers it ruins. It’s no wonder there’s such been such an education uprising across the country. If these extremists continue to disrespect parents’ and teachers’ beliefs, they won’t just find themselves on the wrong side of local elections — they’ll find themselves on the wrong side of the law.

Originally published here.

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Biden’s Weak in Review

To the White House’s dismay, the headline didn’t come from the Babylon Bee, but the liberal New Yorker: “Poll Shows Zelensky Leading 2024 Presidential Race.” It was meant as satire, but for the team riding on Joe Biden’s Titanic, it exposed something that anyone watching the Ukrainian crisis already knew: this president is no leader. And being confronted with one — as Americans were in the form of Volodymyr Zelensky — only confirmed it.

For Biden, who was already neck-deep in disapproval ratings, the rise of Zelensky’s star couldn’t come at a worse time. The Ukrainian president’s speech before Congress was a triumph, cementing his hero status and showing off the kind of courage Americans are left longing for in this administration. Now, as the war enters its fourth week, voters are even more disgusted by the White House’s response to Russia — agreeing (in greater numbers now) that he’s mishandled this crisis too.

It’s the “timidity” of this president that’s making matters worse, Senator Steve Daines (R-Mont.) argued. “Perhaps his doctrine is ‘war through weakness.’ [Because] when you exhibit weakness with these thugs, these dictators who seek authoritarian control over people, [you lose],” he said on “Washington Watch.” “You’ve got to stand up strong against them. And the hesitation this president has… is cost[ing] us dearly. And that was the contrast I saw today of what leadership looks like — what President Zelensky contrasted [from the] poor model of leadership [we have in] President Biden.”

His colleague, Senator John Kennedy (R-La.) was a little more colorful, calling the White House’s response a “wimp fest.” “I think it’s clear that the leader of the free world is President Zelensky,” Kennedy insisted. “Today, President Zelensky said, ‘Can you please help me get planes? Can you please help me get surface-to-air missiles? I’m not asking for American planes, or pilots, or troops.’ President Biden’s response is the same as it always is: ‘I’ll get back to you in three to five business days.’ And he never gets back.”

Right now, Mariupol is desperately trying to dig out survivors from the rubble of a theater that was bombed despite the word “children” spelled out on the pavement in Russian letters large enough for Putin’s pilots to see. It’s “unbearable,” the locals are pleading. “Hell.” As many as 350,000 people are trapped in the city without heat, food, or electricity. Some of them are melting snow and dismantling heating systems just to get the water out to drink. One woman tried to make soup out of rainwater for the 17 strangers in her house, watching Russian planes fly low overhead.

CBN’s George Thomas is on the ground near Kyiv, trying to stay in communication with local Christians. One of them sent pictures of his village, where he says “many Baptists live.” “Bombs are constantly flying overhead. Our house is intact, but a bomb hit the house of prayer. Russian invaders have blocked the exit routes… We cannot evacuate.” They would have help, both parties of Congress say, if Biden would act to send jets to Ukraine. A group of 58 lawmakers — half Democrats, half Republicans — have sent letters demanding that the White House move to shore up Zelensky’s air defense

“We’ve got to find a way to provide that air cover to Ukraine,” Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas) insisted. “If not directly, than indirectly.” As Daines said, “Let the Ukrainian pilots fly those [planes] out of out of Europe, and let them go fight.” They could close their own skies if they had help. “If we were sending that air support from about five different countries into Ukraine,” Brady pointed out, “I think it’d be very difficult for Russia to stop a sort of flood-zone type approach for that weaponry. I just keep thinking our military is so powerful and we can be so creative. There’s got to be a way to help…” Until then, Russians will drop more bombs and kill more people from a sky that could be filled with Ukrainian pilots.

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo joined the chorus Wednesday, arguing that America has the tools the Ukrainians need. “We have them. The Europeans have them… But instead, President Biden has been behind. He’s allowed Vladimir Putin to dictate the pace and the response… He’s allowed Vladimir Putin to…dominate how we think about the structure of what’s taking place here and we can do better than this. Americans deserve it. The Ukrainian people deserve it as well.”

Until then, you have mothers putting their little boys on trains with nothing but their phone numbers on their hands. One 11-year-old boy traveled more than 600 miles alone with nothing but his passport and a plastic bag. In an emotional video, his mother thanked the Slovakian ministry for saving the life of her child. “He conquered everyone with his smile, fearlessness, and the determination of a real hero,” they replied. May the world show the same fearlessness when it comes to saving the lives of so many more.

Originally published here.

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This is a publication of the Family Research Council. Mr. Perkins is president of FRC.