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Portland, Oregon, mother Allison Roberts filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against Portland Public Schools and her children’s elementary school after allegedly facing retaliation over her opposition to their gender curriculum.
According to the Liberty Justice Center, which filed the lawsuit on behalf of Roberts, she initially expressed concern last year over Meriwether Lewis Elementary School’s decision to repaint its traditional rainbow pride flag into an “Intersex-Inclusive Progress” variant to include support for racial and transgender ideology.
Though Roberts supported “being immersed” in Portland’s gay community, she felt that the new flag was “an overtly political symbol that promotes values contradictory to her Christian faith,” specifically due to its promotion of transgenderism.
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Portland mother Allison Roberts was barred from her children’s school activities, including her son’s graduation, after criticizing its gender curriculum. (iStock)
Before she took any action, she discovered an “identity flower” assignment given to her 11-year-old child that asked students to identify and discuss their gender identity with classmates and teachers.
Roberts alleged that she received no prior notice of this assignment and requested a meeting with the school’s principal. After receiving what she described as an unsatisfactory response from the school, Roberts wrote an open letter to the community against the school’s policies, which she distributed on a public sidewalk outside school property.
Roberts was later issued a one-year trespass order after a heated exchange with another parent, barring her from attending school events, including her child’s graduation ceremony. When she reached out to the school for clarification, Roberts was reportedly told that it was a result of engaging in “harassment, intimidation, and threatening behavior” as part of a pattern of “animus and harassment targeting vulnerable members of [the] community.”
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Roberts also criticized the school’s decision to paint an “Intersex-Inclusive Progress” flag on the campus. (Joshua Stanyer/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
The Liberty Justice Center argued that the school violated Roberts’ First and Fourteenth Amendment rights by stifling and retaliating against her speech criticizing the school’s policies. The legal organization is asking a federal court to have the school’s actions declared unconstitutional and issue an injunction against the policies targeting Roberts.
Portland Public Schools declined to comment to Digital about the ongoing case.
Timothy R. Snowball, senior counsel at Liberty Justice Center, told Digital that the organization also aims to have an injunction issued against the school’s current harassment policy to prevent other situations like Roberts’ in the future.
“Our next step in the case will be filing a motion for a preliminary injunction to put a stop to these unconstitutional policies while the case moves forward. This motion will help protect not only Allison’s rights, but all affected families in Portland,” Snowball said.
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The Liberty Justice Center spoke out against Portland Public Schools’ harassment policy that it claims can be used against parents like Roberts. (Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP Photo)
Roberts also told Digital that she has received widespread support for her efforts.
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“It has been heartening to see the outpouring of support from my local Portland community, and from parents and grandparents across the country,” she said. “I never wanted things to get to this point. But knowing that I’m fighting this battle not just for my family, but for millions of American families, reassures me that bringing this suit is the right thing to do.”
