The Southern Poverty Law Center and another group have amended a federal lawsuit against a Georgia school district to include a transgender student and a grassroots youth organization, effectively becoming the “first case challenging anti-LGBTQ book bans” in the state.
The move – done anonymously to protect the student – widens the case’s focus from how teachers are affected by censorship laws and policies in Georgia, to how those same policies affect children.
Harry Chiu, with the Southern Education Foundation and one of the plaintiffs’ attorneys, told the Guardian he believes the case could “set a precedent in Georgia and across the region that book bans which discriminate against LGBTQ students and educators who teach age-appropriate lessons are unconstitutional”.
Katherine Rinderle, an elementary school teacher of “gifted and talented” students, was fired in August after reading My Shadow is Purple to her students. The complaint was previously lodged on her behalf, as well as the Georgia Association of Educators and another teacher – and against the school district and individual employees. Defendants filed a motion in April to dismiss the initial complaint. Now, the amended lawsuit adds the student – called “AA” – and the Georgia Youth Justice Coalition, a grassroots youth group, as plaintiffs. The school district and other defendants have until 29 July to respond.
“It’s vital that the case was amended, because … it documents the real harms students have experienced as a result of these policies,” said Melody Oliphant, executive director of the youth coalition.
The amended lawsuit offers detailed accounts of how everything from going to the bathroom to participating in chorus became fraught with stress for the student, as Rinderle, the one teacher who supported her, was first suspended for reading the book written by an Australian author, and eventually fired.
The complaint alleges that the Cobb county school district “not only causes gender nonconforming students and gender nonconforming families emotional harm by forcing students to learn in unwelcoming and unsupportive environments, it also inflicts stress, terror, and heartbreak on entire families”.
The district responded to a request for an interview by saying: “While we have no comment on ongoing litigation, we are proud to be a district focused on Georgia standards and what children need to know and do.”
Rinderle bought My Shadow is Purple at a Scholastic Book Fair last spring – a picture book Scholastic recommends for five- to eight-year-olds. The teacher of more than a decade chose the title “because of its anti-bullying message”, according to the complaint. Her class voted on books for a morning “read-aloud” session and nine of 15 students chose the 32-page book.
Two days after the reading session, one parent and then another emailed complaints to the school’s principal. The second called “anything in the genre of ‘LGBTQ’ and ‘queer’ […] divisive”. The principal forwarded the emails to the school district’s central office. Within five days, on 13 March, Rinderle was suspended. By August, she was fired.
One of the two policies the district applied in its decision prohibits teaching “divisive” concepts. It was amended to include this language after the 2022 “Protect Students First” law passed in Georgia; both the law and the policy refer to a series of concepts dealing with race as examples of prohibited content – but don’t mention gender.
While Rinderle went through the months-long process of being investigated by the district and eventually fired, AA suffered the ripple effects, the complaint alleges. Rinderle was AA’s teacher in second grade. In third grade, which was virtual due to Covid, AA “began expressing a more consistent female gender identity”, according to the lawsuit. Rinderle again taught AA in fourth grade, by which time AA “presented as a girl”, growing her hair out and wearing clothes such as skirts.
Reactions at school included a student telling AA she “could not be a girl”. Other students would not use “she/her” pronouns to address the student. Rinderle supported AA, allowing her to use the staff bathroom and spending time with her during recess. The teacher “provided her companionship and support as well as validation of her gender identity as a girl”, according to the complaint.
AA was no longer in Rinderle’s class in fifth grade, when the teacher read My Shadow is Purple. But the two stayed in touch. AA “was confused and upset when she learned of Rinderle’s removal and feared having to attend school without Rinderle’s availability to provide emotional support”.
After Rinderle’s termination, the district removed other books from schools, including The Perks of Being a Wallflower and All Boys Aren’t Blue. AA went on to middle school, where challenges included the district refusing to change her name, despite her mother’s request to do so. That refusal allegedly led to AA having to make up stories to explain the name to her peers when it was called out during chorus, as it is usually associated with males.
At a school dance, a teacher reported AA for using the girls’ bathroom, leading the vice-principal to reprimand her. Her mother had obtained permission for AA to use the staff bathroom, but the student couldn’t find it.
The amended complaint’s claims include assertions that Cobb county’s “censorship” policies violate the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment, constituting sex discrimination, as well as violating first amendment free speech rights.
“LGBTQ-plus students are … not just excluded [under school district policies]”, Chiu said. “They’re affirmatively told, ‘You don’t belong here.’”
