A high school English teacher is suing a Wisconsin school district, alleging it did not renew his contract last year because he refused to use the preferred names of two transgender students.
Jordan Cernek’s federal lawsuit alleges the Argyle School District in Argyle, Wisconsin, violated his constitutional and civil rights to be free of religious discrimination and to be able to express himself according to his religious beliefs when the district allegedly did not renew his contract because he refused to abide by a requirement that teachers use the names or pronouns requested by students.
“The district policy would force me to go against my conviction and commitment to God,” Cernak said in a statement from his lawyers. “I did everything within my power to accommodate the needs of my students without compromising my faith.”
The suit, which argues that the non-renewal was tantamount to firing the teacher, repeatedly cites the 1964 Civil Rights Act and its Title VII section prohibiting workplace discrimination.
Filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin last month, it seeks undisclosed damages, attorney fees and a declaration that the district violated Cernak’s First Amendment rights and his rights to nondiscrimination based on race, religion, sex or national origin.
Argyle School District Superintendent Randy Refsland said in an email Tuesday night that he could not comment because the matter was being litigated in court.
The suit says two of Cernak’s students were previously known to him as biologically female but had recently transitioned with new names, which Cernak refused to utter. The district pressed the issue with him and, the suit stated, allowed him to move forward by using physical gestures such as pointing them out for discussions instead of using their new names.
But after one of the students expressed unhappiness with the situation — the student’s father was described as a fellow district teacher — the district demanded adherence to the policy of using students’ preferred names and pronouns, according to the suit.
The school board discussed the matter in private, as is customary with personnel issues, and held a vote last year that led to Cernak’s contract ending without renewal, the filing stated.
The suit faults the district for allegedly agreeing to allow the teacher to move forward by avoiding use of the transgender students’ new names but then ultimately saying the educator was bound by its name and pronoun policy, first announced in 2022.
Cernek taught multiple grades of English at Argyle High School, as well as Advanced Placement English for seniors, according to the suit.
The Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, which describes itself as a litigation nonprofit dedicated to the rights of conservatives and libertarians, is spearheading the lawsuit. Its deputy counsel, Luke Berg, and its associate counsel, Lauren Greuel, said in a statement that the quest to respect students’ gender identities clashes with the longer-standing rights of people like the Cernek.
Greul said that this fight over first names and pronouns will be crucial for «everyday Americans across the country.»
The Argyle policy is one of many across the nation that seek to recognize the evolving nature of gender identity and pronouns amid research that indicates LGTBQ+ students fare better in school when identified according to their preferred names and pronouns.
A 2022 report on pronouns by the Minnesota Department of Health says that the correct use of preferred pronouns «saves lives.» It cites the 2019 Minnesota Student Survey in stating that nearly half of LGBTQ+ students in the state reported that they’ve seriously considered suicide. But transgender and nonbinary students who said their pronouns are respected by everyone with whom they live attempted suicide at half the rate of those who didn’t experience that respect, the department said.
The National Institutes of Health, meanwhile, says, «Intentional refusal to use someone’s correct pronouns is equivalent to harassment and a violation of one’s civil rights.»
The nonprofit Fair Wisconsin, which advocates for a state free of anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination, said the state does not specifically protect gender identity or expression, but many school districts have taken it upon themselves to do so through policies like the Argyle district’s.
«Fair Wisconsin recognizes the harmful impacts of anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric in the political sphere, and we want to make sure LGBTQ+ youth know that you are loved, you are supported, and we stand with you,» the group said on Facebook last week in response to the latest Wisconsin Youth Risk Behavior Survey, which found that LGBTQ+ and female students «reported a disproportionate number of mental health challenges compared to peers.»
