Ohio Teacher Says LGBTQ+ Book Bans Violate Her Religious Freedom

After years of religious parents demanding LGBTQ+ books be removed from public school libraries, one teacher is fighting back.

The saga began when Ohio elementary school teacher Karen Cahall was suspended for three days after a parent complained to the principal and school board about "inappropriate" books in her classroom that included LGBTQ+ content.

Cahall has alleged that the district violated her moral and religious convictions, as she feels a deep calling to provide love and care for LGBTQ+ kids. The books are an expression of that, she says. 

Now Cahall is suing the district, utilizing the same legal strategy frequently invoked by anti-LGBTQ+ faithful to purge classrooms and school libraries of such content: religious freedom.

Is turnabout fair play?

Fighting Fire With Fire?

"Cahall maintains sincere and deeply rooted moral and religious beliefs that all children, including children who are LGBTQ+ or the children of parents who are LGBTQ+, deserve to be respected, accepted, and loved for who they are," reads the lawsuit against the New Richmond Exempted Village School District in Clermont County, Ohio. 

The suit argues that her “sincerely held moral and religious beliefs [are that] LGBTQ+ youth needed to have access to safe spaces and safe people both at school and outside of school to whom they could confide and seek guidance." 

The books at the center of the controversy (Ana on the Edge, The Fabulous Zed Watson, Hazel Bly and the Deep Blue Sea, and Too Bright to See) were all age-appropriate and featured no explicit content, but had LGBTQ+ themes or characters. Cahall estimates they are just a handful of some 100 books in her classroom that students are free to read (or not read) during free time. She does not teach them and they are not mandatory reading.

Cahall had previously requested to have the books placed in the school library, but was denied by the school district. When they were found in her classroom, the school issued the three-day suspension. 

Class(room) Warfare

It’s no secret that public school libraries and classrooms have become cultural battlegrounds in recent years. Increasingly, parents, community members, and local clergy have been flooding school board meetings all across the country, demanding that any books with LGBTQ+ content in them be removed.

In some cases, they’ve even proposed burning them.

At the same time, schools across the country are increasingly teaching kids the Holy Bible instead, and President-elect Trump has even vowed to bring school prayer back to the classroom.

Faith – or at least evangelical Christianity – is clearly coming back to schools. But is there room for opposing opinions?

Cahall says that her religious beliefs require her to care for and treat LGBTQ+ kids with dignity. For her, that includes offering age-appropriate books for them to read should they so choose. Does the state have the authority to tell her what she truly believes? And is that a can of legal worms we want to open? 

What do you think? When it comes to the rights of teachers to practice their faith in the classroom, where, exactly, is the line?