McCord v. South Madison Community School Corporation
Description: The South Madison Community School Corporation in Indiana fired school counselor Kathy McCord, a 37-year veteran in the education field, for speaking about the school district’s gender identity policy. In August 2021, the school district adopted a policy that required counselors and other employees to use names and pronouns for students that do not correspond with their sex, without requiring parental notification or consent. In some cases, it even required employees to hide these new names and pronouns from parents.
Indiana school district violates counselor's freedom of speech
The following quote may be attributed to Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Vincent Wagner regarding a motion ADF attorneys filed Thursday with a federal district court in McCord v. South Madison Community School Corporation, asking it to protect a school counselor’s free speech rights. South Madison Community School Corporation in Indiana fired Kathy McCord, a 37-year veteran in the education field, for speaking about the school district’s gender identity policy:
“No educator should be fired for expressing her beliefs, especially when she speaks in her personal capacity, on her own time, and out of concern for her students. Yet when Kathy told the truth about South Madison’s controversial practice of keeping parents in the dark about changing kids’ names and pronouns, the school district did just that. Kathy knows that kids do best when schools and parents work together. And South Madison violated Kathy’s rights by firing her for telling the truth. Schools can’t keep secrets from parents about their children’s mental health and wellbeing.”
In August 2021, the school district directed counselors and other employees to use names and pronouns for students that do not correspond with their sex, without requiring parental notification or consent. In some cases, it even required employees to hide these new names and pronouns from parents.
McCord objected to this new directive, which compelled her to speak in ways that violate her sincerely held religious beliefs. When a reporter asked McCord about South Madison’s directive, she confirmed the accuracy of information he had already gathered from other sources. Soon afterwards, he reported on the directive, and the school district fired McCord.
Alliance Defending Freedom is an alliance-building, non-profit legal organization committed to protecting religious freedom, free speech, parental rights, and the sanctity of life.
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ABOUT Vincent Wagner
Vincent Wagner serves as senior counsel with the Center for Parental Rights at Alliance Defending Freedom where he safeguards parents’ rights to direct the upbringing, education, and care of their children. Before joining ADF in 2022, Wagner served the state of Arkansas as deputy solicitor general. Prior to his government service, Wagner was an associate with Baker Botts L.L.P. Wagner earned his B.A., summa cum laude, from Harding University and his J.D. from the University of Texas at Austin. Immediately after law school, he clerked for then-Chief Judge Ed Carnes of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. Wagner is admitted to the state bars of Arkansas, Texas, and Virginia, the U.S. Supreme Court, and various lower federal courts.