Indiana School District Pays Teacher $650,000 in Pronoun Lawsuit
Former music teacher John Kluge said a policy requiring staff to use transgender students’ preferred names violated his religious beliefs.
John Kluge has settled a lawsuit against the Brownsburg Community School Corporation after claiming he was forced out of his music teaching job for refusing to use a transgender student’s preferred first name, arguing the district’s policy requiring staff to use transgender students’ preferred names and pronouns violated his religious beliefs.
Kluge, who identifies as Christian, alleged the district discriminated against him and retaliated after he refused to follow the policy.
The controversy began in 2017 after the Brownsburg school district adopted a policy requiring teachers to call students by the name listed in a school database, which reflected transgender students’ preferred first names.
For a year, the school allowed Kluge an accommodation permitting him to refer to all students by their last names only, according to court documents. But after some students and teachers complained, the district announced a new policy rejecting all religious accommodations and revoked Kluge’s exemption. The district said the previous compromise — and his refusal to use students’ preferred first names — was harming students.
In May 2018, the school district gave Kluge an ultimatum to resign or be fired, prompting him to resign. He later sued, claiming the refusal to grant a religious accommodation discriminated against him based on his faith.
In July 2021, a federal judge in Indianapolis ruled against Kluge, finding that his refusal to use transgender students’ preferred names could harm students and disrupt the school environment. Kluge appealed but lost again in 2023 when the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled his last-names-only practice stigmatized transgender students.
Later that year, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling raising the bar for employers seeking to deny religious accommodations for employees. The decision revived Kluge’s case.
Following another round of litigation, the 7th Circuit ruled last August that a jury should decide whether allowing Kluge to refer to students by last names only created an undue burden for the school district.
Rather than continue the case, both parties agreed to a settlement in which the school district will pay Kluge $650,000 and train staff on how federal law protects employees against religious discrimination.
In a statement, the Brownsburg Community School Corporation said that while settling the lawsuit was in its best financial interest, it maintains that it did not infringe on Kluge’s First Amendment rights.
“The school corporation has not wavered in its belief that Mr. Kluge’s decision to resign came after the school corporation followed its policy and applicable federal laws and acted in the best interest of its students,” the district said in a statement.
It remains unclear whether the district’s policy requiring teachers to use students’ preferred names and pronouns is still in place or has since been amended with exemptions.
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