37 Trial Lawyer • Spring 2024 Jennifer Middleton By Jennifer Middleton OTLA Guardian One of the most effective ways to deny people from marginalized communities their full humanity is to prohibit them from declaring openly who they are. Schools and teachers are at the forefront of this battle, from “don’t say gay” laws in Florida to battles in Iowa over whether teachers may call a child by any name other than the one on their birth certificate. In a career of advancing and defending the rights of queer people, perhaps the most fundamental claims I have made address the rights of teachers and students to speak openly about their core selves. One of those teachers was Leo Soell, a 5th grade teacher in the GreshamBarlow school district in 2014 when they started to go by they/them pronouns. Soell came out as transgender to several people at school and began a conversation with their principal about transitioning more fully. When Soell told the principal that they are transgender, the principal said he already knew. He then instructed Soell not to tell students or parents. Soell protested that using correct gender-neutral pronouns is a key part of expressing their gender. The principal told Soell they should go see the school counselor about it. Constructing a plan It was the spring of 2015 before Leo Soell tried again. They had been on a medical leave over much of the term and, during that time, had changed their name. Soell worked with the school counselor to develop a plan to inform colleagues and students about their new name and gender-neutral pronouns. The plan was for Soell to make a short video to email colleagues before their return, keeping the message low-key and personal. Soell spoke with administrators about how to tell the elementary school students about their correct name and pronouns, suggesting that the other teachers tell their classes so that everyone would hear the same thing at the same time. The principal said they would discuss these issues at an upcoming meeting with human resources. At that meeting, the HR director opened by giving Soell a lengthy memo detailing what the district would permit Soell to say about their gender and to whom. The district claimed that because Soell had “chosen” to be “public” about their gender at work, the district had the right to be involved in what Soell could say about it and when. Utterly lost on the district was the plain fact that every employee, student, parent and other member of the school community was public about their gender. It is one of the most outwardly apparent aspects of one’s identity, and that being public about one’s gender is not a “choice.” Among the district’s proposals was to send a letter home to all families “for everyone’s safety” to give them “fair warning” of Soell’s “transgendered status.” Needless to say, the school district had never before sent a letter home to parents to give them “fair warning” of a teacher’s religion or race or sexual orientation or gender. The district told Soell to prepare scripts for administrators’ review and approval, delineating what they could say about their gender. They forbade Soell from referring to their gender identity or using their correct pronouns in the presence of students (which was virtually all the time). They barred Soell from using their correct name with students at least The problem with “privacy” See Privacy p 38
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