Fired Over Johnny The Walrus?

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1:06While pop star duo Lepa has recently launched her own banned books display that includes some widely available books, one organ social worker found himself out of a job because of his own book display, which included Matt Walsh's Johnny the Walrus. In this episode, we talk with Alliance Defending Freedom's Tyson Langhofer about the case of Rod Tyson, who found himself in hot water over three children's books that only encouraged children to accept how they were born. I'm Daily Wire Executive Editor John Bickley with Georgia Howl. This is a legal wire edition of Morning Wire. There are certain phone calls that somehow stay on the to-do list. The dentist, the annual checkup, finding a new doctor after you move or change insurance. You keep thinking I'll call tomorrow. Then tomorrow becomes next week. And when you finally call, you get a voicemail, a phone tag, or an appointment three months from now. There has to be an easier way. This episode is sponsored by ZockDock. ZockDock lets you search and compare high quality in network doctors.

2:07You can read reviews from real patients, see actual appointment openings, and click to book instantly. No awkward phone call required. An appointment's happened fast, usually within 24 to 72 hours. You can even score a same day appointment. It used to take me weeks to make a doctor appointment. And when I finally did, it would take even longer to finally get it on the schedule. The last time I used ZockDock, I was in the doctor's office within 24 hours. So maybe this is your sign to finally take that appointment off the list. Your health matters, and taking care of yourself shouldn't be complicated. Find and book the right doctor with ZockDock. Head to ZockDock.com slash wire to get started and check that appointment off your to-do list. That's zocdoc.com slash wire. Joining us now to discuss the Oregon book banning cases Tyson Langhofer of Alliance defending freedom. Well, come on Tyson. Hey, thanks so much for having me. I'm just covering the band of books debate as it sort of flared up in the past. It goes away. It comes back. But now that the new school year has started, we're starting to see this become an issue again.

3:12We've seen some headlines recently about this. We wanted to look at this really interesting case that actually relates directly to us here at the Daily Wire. First, what exactly is this case of this fired social worker about? Sure. So Rod Tyson was an education specialist and a licensed clinical social worker for over 17 years at the Intermountain Education Service District. And he gave testing to students who were struggling and so forth. And he had a great career that his colleagues loved him. He loved his job did a great job. The issue arose when he decided to display three different books. He is he and she is she by Ryan and Bethany Bomber. And then Johnny the walrus by a guy you might be familiar with Matt Walsh. Hey, I've heard of him. Yeah, may have heard of him. So Rod displayed those books as decoration in his office. All you could see was just the covers. He never used them in his work, never used them with students. And those messages are really simple like boys are boys girls are girls and they should every student should love how they remain.

4:15So how exactly did this turn into Rod getting into trouble? You know, he he displayed the John in the walrus book for more than two years, not a single complaint from a student, a parent, teacher. But after he began displaying that he is he and she is she books a single teacher took offense to the covers of books did some research on what the book said and complained. The district unfortunately ran with that. And they said that the books actually were a biosensitive they labeled it biosensitive. They said it was a hostile expression of animus to promote a binary view of gender. Now the problem with that is that the school the school's own books like their science classes and their education classes. They promote an XXXY vision of biology. They promote a biological use of pronouns. So this wasn't about disruption or you know some variants from the curriculum. This was about shutting down a viewpoint that they don't like. And to be clear other teachers were able to freely decorate their offices however they wanted correct.

5:17Absolutely. It was very clear that every teacher employee has the right to decorate their classrooms and their offices. Whatever way they want they don't have to have prior permission. Many other teachers had you know BLM flags had LGBT flags they had pro union material they had a lot of family photos and and other material. And in fact many of them displayed books and many of those books weren't even age appropriate for the middle school level. Yet they were allowed to continue to allow to display those books. So he's ordered to remove these books he files a lawsuit your team gets involved and then there's apparently some sort of setup that triggered his firing can you impact that part for us. Sure it's sort of a crazy set of facts so after the initial teacher complain the school ordered him to remove the books. We then filed a lawsuit on behalf of Ron and the district court actually ruled in Ron's favor and said that Rod could display the books when the students that he was serving were not present.

6:17So in other words when he wasn't testing students in his office he could display them had to remove them while it was serving them. So beginning in the next school year Rod puts the books back up there actually students aren't even back in school yet that the sixth grade students are visiting along with some eighth grade eighth grade ambassadors. Four eighth graders show up in Rod's door and they demand to read the books. Rod asks them who are you what are you doing what you know are you supposed to be in class they said no we're not in class we just want to see these books. So they grab the books they start reading them and the teacher who had already filed two different complaints against rod. Happens to walk by with a camera at the time and records these students reading the books. She then files a complaint the next day and the school used that to terminate Rod's employment. Alright so clearly a setup by this teacher who's been targeting him from the beginning. This came to the ninth circuit just last month as I understand it what happened there how did it rule. So in a two to one decision that night circuit ruled in favor of the school and they ruled essentially that because Rod was a public school employee and students could see the books that the decorations actually counted as government speech which fell outside the protection of the first amendment.

7:32Now we think that's wrong and really out of step with the Supreme Court's decision in 2022 and the Kennedy versus Bremerton school district case. And in that case the court rejected the idea that everything an employee does within view of students is automatically government speech. And the descent in the night circuit recognized this he really put it plainly he said that Rod's books were his personal expression there no different from the pride flags with a BLM posters that his colleagues were allowed to display. And there there was no evidence of any disruption in the descending judges case this isn't a hard case. So the majority rules against him what are the implications of this ruling well we think it's a pretty broad implications the Kennedy decision was very clear that that teachers don't shed their constitutional rights when they are on campus just because students are seeing them when they're when they're speaking. And so we're concerned that this decision really undermines the Kennedy decision and would essentially you know allow the school to say that anything a teacher says while at school is automatically government speech and they now no longer have any first amendment rights.

8:42And this now also includes simply the books that they read. Yeah anything displayed in your office in fact you know if and what this allows the school to do is it will allow one the school to allow one teacher to wear a pen supporting a certain position but deny another teacher the the right to wear a pen supporting the opposite position we think that's wrong both as a first amendment but also you know it really sends the wrong message to students because it makes it seem as if every adult at the school holds this opinion on these issues and that's just not the case. Right I think it's pretty alarming from a parent's perspective what's next for this particular case well we have some options we can either appeal to the entire night circuit take it on bonk or we could appeal it straight to the Supreme Court and we're still weighing our our options here you know I mean rod treated every student with kindness with dignity and respect and we're simply asking that he be allowed to do whatever other teachers allow to do decorate his offices and you know with kids.

9:44Affirming material and we want him to get his job back most is really a chilling message to not just employees but students and parents so we'll definitely keep a close eye on this case Tyson thank you so much for coming on. Hey thanks so much for having me. That was ADF's Tyson Langhofer and this has been a legal wire edition of Morning Wire.