MEDFORD, OR – Two Oregon teachers have reached a $650,000 settlement with the school district that fired them for opposing policies allowing gender-confused students to use facilities and pronouns inconsistent with their biological sex. The settlement follows a June 2025 decision from the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals that reversed a lower court ruling and legitimized the teachers’ claim of “disparate treatment” based on their viewpoint. While the lower court rejected the teachers’ request for constitutional damages, the appeals court ordered the case to trial which led the district and teachers to reach a settlement agreement instead.

Former Assistant Principal Rachel Sager and Health and Science Teacher Katie Medart were fired in 2021 by the Grants Pass School District (GPSD) after creating the grassroots movement “I Resolve.” The organization seeks “reasonable” alternatives to gender education policies, such as GPSD’s “Gender Identity, Transgender, Name, and Pronoun Guidance.” 

The GPSD policy states that educators must allow students access to restrooms, locker rooms, and other facilities “associated with the student’s preferred gender identity,” while also allowing students to use “preferred pronouns” in class “even if” parents did not give their consent. However, the teachers used their “I Resolve” movement to produce a video offering “alternative proposals” to the district’s gender policies that was uploaded to YouTube. The video generated both media attention as well as formal complaints from other district staff prompting the district to fire Sager and Medart for violating district policies governing political speech and causing a disruption to the education environment. Sager and Medart’s lawsuit claimed the district violated their rights under the First and Fourteenth Amendments, the Oregon Constitution, and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by treating them differently for opposing the “concept of shifting gender identity” from employees who support that concept.

In addition to the $650,000 in monetary damages, the terms of the settlement agreement also include the school district making a “public statement” that acknowledges Sager and Medart’s “wrongful termination fell short of its standards and responsibilities,” and that the district provide positive letters of recommendation, remove negative references from their personnel files, and revise its gender policy to comply with the First Amendment.  

This settlement continues a trend where teachers are emerging victorious after being unlawfully fired for opposing school district gender policies. In May 2024, the California Jurupa Unified School District  agreed to pay a $360,000 settlement to physical education teacher Jessica Tapia who had been fired for refusing school directives to lie to parents about their child’s gender confusion or deny biological reality by using preferred pronouns.

In October 2024, the West Point School Board in Virginia agreed to settle a wrongful termination lawsuit and pay $575,000 in damages to high school French teacher Peter Vlaming, who was fired for refusing to refer to a female student by male pronouns citing his religious convictions. 

Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “The First Amendment grants educators the right to speak on matters of public concern, including school policies on gender identity. Government school administrators cannot retaliate against speech they disagree with and cannot force teachers to endorse or engage in ideological viewpoints that violate their religious beliefs or freedom of speech. Teachers do not shed their constitutional rights at the schoolhouse gates.” 

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