DOJ, 17 states and DC file interest in lawsuit by former Cobb teacher fired over LGBTQ+ book lesson

COBB COUNTY, Ga. — A former Cobb County teacher filed a lawsuit against the school district after she was fired for teaching a lesson about gender identity and LGBTQ topics to fifth graders.

Now, multiple states and the U.S. Department of Justice have filed in court to show their interest and concerns in her lawsuit.

Katie Rinderle was fired in August 2023 after the Cobb County School Board said her conduct had violated two state laws when she taught a lesson using a book called “My Shadow is Purple.”

Despite a large group of supporters urging the district to keep Rinderle on the payroll, the board voted 4-3 to fire her. That decision is what prompted Rinderle’s lawsuit in February.

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Now, the USDOJ has signed an amicus brief, or “friend of the court” letter, expressing interest in the case, though the federal government did not say they had an opinion on the merits of the case itself.

Separately, a group of more than a dozen states and the District of Columbia filed amici curiae, expressing concerns over allegations of censorship and violations of the First Amendment when it comes to educational pedagogy and curriculum decisions.

The states that signed on with concerns over censorship include California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Vermont and the District of Columbia, all in support of Rinderle’s lawsuit.

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The group of states and Washington all directly accuse the Cobb County School District of having “censorship policies” and using them to restrict speech and “stigmatize LGBTQ Youth in Georgia,” and the larger LGBTQ community, to the point that the “stigmatic harms extend” to the states filing in support of the fired Cobb County teacher.

“Amici States’ experiences make clear that the recent actions plaintiffs allege were taken by defendant Cobb County School District (CCSD) are far outside the bounds of ordinary educational decision-making,” the states said in their brief to the court.

Citing Georgia’s Protect Students First Act and the Parents’ Bill of Rights, the states said the two laws prohibit advocating for what are defined by Georgia’s statutes as “divisive concepts.”

When the laws were implemented, the court brief said “CCSD incorporated these new state laws into local administrative rules,” that banned employees from using classroom lessons to “espouse personal political beliefs” about the so-called divisive concepts.

The result of this, according to the brief, was a tacit ban on discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity, even though the policies themselves do not explicitly mention them. Instead, the policies prevent employees from “improperly infringing upon” parental rights to “direct the upbringing and moral or religious training of their children.”

When Rinderle used “My Shadow is Purple” in what was described as a lesson about bullying at school, the book’s main character’s status as a transgender child was said to violate the school board’s policies on “controversial issues,” according to the amici curiae brief.

Channel 2 Action News has reported previously that the way the school board has enforced these rules, including removal of certain books from school libraries, has drawn criticism for a perception of targeting the LGBTQ community in particular.

On the USDOJ side of the court briefings, the government said its interest lies in ensuring a proper interpretation of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 added to the Civil Rights Act. The Title IX provisions provide protections for individuals who are targeted with discrimination on the basis of sex.

A recent U.S. Supreme Court case that began in Clayton County, Ga., the Bostock decision, further expanded Title IX’s protections to cover discrimination over sexual orientation.

Under this ruling’s precedent, USDOJ filed its own expression of interest in Rinderle’s case, saying the actions of CCSD and its school board had potentially illegally retaliated against the fifth-grade teacher by terminating her over reading the “My Shadow is Purple” book to her class.

USDOJ said “for purposes of Plaintiff Rinderle’s Title IX retaliation claim, this Court must assess whether the Complaint plausibly alleges that she had a reasonable, good faith belief that a hostile environment based on sex existed for LGBTQ and gender nonconforming students” in Cobb County schools as a result of how their board interpreted Georgia’s newer education laws.

Still, the Justice Department notes that they are not taking a position on the merits of Rinderle’s case, or the district’s defense in court.

In response to the various parties amicus filings in court, a Cobb County School District person provided the following response:

“While we have no comment about ongoing litigation, we believe the decision of the District is correct. It is far more relevant for the Georgia Board of Education to have affirmed the District’s decision, based on Georgia law, than the opinions of out-of-state political activists.”

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