Ruskin math teacher sues to block Florida's pronoun ban

RUSKIN, Fla. - A math teacher at Ruskin's Lennard High School is among three Florida educators who filed a lawsuit on Wednesday challenging Florida Statute § 1000.071(3) (2023) ("Subsection 3"), a statute signed in 2023 that bans employees pronouns different from those assigned at birth.

"By barring transgender and nonbinary teachers from using titles and pronouns that express their gender identities and by threatening to decertify and fire teachers who do so, Subsection 3 clearly and unlawfully discriminates based on sex and restrains their speech, in violation of the U.S. Constitution and civil rights statutes," The Southern Poverty Law Center said in a news release.

In their complaint, plaintiffs Katie Wood, Jane Doe, and AV Schwandes are asking for an injunction preventing Florida’s enforcement of Subsection 3. Separately, Ms. Wood and Ms. Doe are requesting an injunction prohibiting their employers from enforcing Subsection 3, and Mx. Schwandes is also demanding damages from their employer, who fired them for violating Subsection 3.

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"Florida enacted Subsection 3 to attack the existence of LGBTQ+ people, sending the state-sanctioned, inflammatory, and false message that transgender and nonbinary people and their identities are inherently dangerous to children," the SPLC said Wednesday. "Many teachers have already left their careers, the profession, and the state in response to discriminatory laws Florida passed to push LGBTQ+ people out of public life and erase their existence. This is especially true for transgender and nonbinary children and adults in all aspects of life, including sports, books, entertainment, health care, and even restrooms."

Student in class. 

Supporters of the legislation view the restrictions as a victory in an ongoing war against perceived 'woke' indoctrination in public schools.

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"There is no American right more fundamental than freedom of expression and protection from the government that weaponizes their disagreements on that expression. Subsection 3 violates both of these," said plaintiff Katie Wood, the teacher from Ruskin. "I am a transgender teacher, but I am a human being first. As a human being living in America, I demand to be treated with fairness and equity at work. Those who support and enforce this law are trying to take my voice away and bury my existence. But they will not. I can help hold Florida lawmakers accountable in a court of law. I will not be swept under the rug, I will not be silenced, and I will not budge for my Constitutional rights."

Sam Boyd, who is representing Wood in the lawsuit, said teaching is a job she loves. But now, Boyd said there's a part of the job that makes her feel anything but at home.

The lawsuit said the Lennard High School math teacher has had to abandon writing "Ms. Wood" on the chalkboard, and now calls herself "teacher Wood."

"She's dressed as a woman. She has a woman's name," said Boyd. "So it's the fact if she were to do what the law wanted her to do, which is to refer to herself using mister, which is something that she would find really offensive and very difficult or impossible to do."

The lawsuit said she is being discriminated against under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, in that she now feels a burden because of her sex. She transitioned during college, and her students have never known her as anything but her.

"This law was intended to drive transgender teachers out of the classroom," said Boyd.

The plaintiffs in Wood et al. v. Florida Department of Education et al. are represented by the Southern Poverty Law Center, Southern Legal Counsel, and Altshuler Berzon, LLP.

File: Student writing on paper in school. 

"Educators serve their students and communities best when working in safe spaces where they are respected, valued, and allowed to be themselves," the plaintiffs' attorneys said on Wednesday's filing. "Stigmatizing trans and nonbinary people not only undermines educators but also harms and isolates all students. Teaching at a public school shouldn’t mean denying or contradicting core beliefs or, most importantly, losing oneself entirely. These unlawful statutes have distracted and harmed teachers who want to teach. Florida has only an invidious basis, not an exceedingly persuasive or rational one, for this discrimination."

Governor Ron DeSantis has said that the pronouns could lead students to be indoctrinated into certain lifestyles.

"If a parent wants to engage in that with their kid at those ages, then that's up to them, but we should not be putting that in the curriculum in school," DeSantis said on May 17. "We are not doing the pronoun olympics in Florida. It's not happening here."

The case has been assigned to US District Judge Mark Walker, an Obama-era appointee. Click here to view the complaint.