The U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals has officially ruled that public schools cannot force students to use “preferred pronouns.”
The full en banc decision in Defending Education v. Olentangy Local School District Board of Education declared that compelling students to use gender-identity pronouns violates the First Amendment’s Free Speech Clause and that there is “no evidence that the use of biological pronouns would disrupt school functions or qualify as harassment under Ohio law.”
Judge Eric Murphy, writing for the majority, ruled that the Olentangy School District’s policies, which banned the use of “biological pronouns,” were unconstitutional and represented viewpoint discrimination.
The court made clear that schools may not compel students to affirm beliefs they do not hold or punish them for using pronouns consistent with biological sex.
“The school district may not skew this debate by forcing one side to change the way it conveys its message or by compelling it to express a different view,” Murphy wrote.
“We thus reverse and remand for an appropriately tailored preliminary injunction barring the district from punishing students for the commonplace use of biological pronouns.”
The decision reverses a lower court ruling and orders a preliminary injunction preventing the district from punishing students who refer to classmates according to their biological sex.
The lawsuit was filed by Defending Education, a national parental-rights organization formerly known as Parents Defending Education. The group represented families in the Olentangy Local School District near Columbus, Ohio.
According to AP, “The national membership organization first filed suit against Olentangy in 2023, saying the district’s policies requiring the use of peers’ “preferred pronouns” were a violation of students’ rights under the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. The district argued the rules were aimed to prevent bullying and discrimination.”
Parents argued their children were being silenced and forced to “affirm” gender ideologies that contradicted their scientific, moral, and religious beliefs.
The families, referred to as Parents A, B, C, and D, said their children feared punishment if they referred to peers using pronouns consistent with biological sex rather than self-declared gender identity.
This ruling represents a significant setback for the “woke” speech codes taking hold across American schools.
It reaffirms that students have the right to express themselves according to their conscience and that institutions cannot enforce political correctness under the pretense of “inclusivity.”
The court ordered an injunction preventing the district from punishing students who use biological pronouns consistent with their beliefs. Importantly, it clarified that schools can still enforce anti-harassment rules against actual bullying, but cannot redefine disagreement as discrimination.
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