Fired over a book display

A children’s book display in a social worker’s school office led to a yearslong court battle over the worker’s firing. Rod Theis had hoped that decorating his office with books on God’s design for gender would encourage students. But officials at InterMountain Education Service District in Umatilla County, Ore., labeled the books as a “hostile expression of animus” and later fired the licensed clinical social worker over the display.

Last week, a divided panel from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the district’s actions. Theis’ office decor “falls outside the First Amendment’s ambit,” the 2-1 majority said in the ruling. But a dissenting judge cautioned that the majority opinion unconstitutionally limits the personal speech rights of American citizens.

Theis, who worked at InterMountain for nearly two decades, displayed the books He Is He and She Is She in his office in 2024. The books, which he placed on the ledge of a window behind his desk at La Grande Middle School, explain to children ages 2-8 how they can embrace and love the way God made them. He said he did not intend to read the books to children but hoped the decor would serve as an encouraging and positive message.

Soon after he set up the books, school officials received a complaint from another employee that the display was “transphobic.” The employee filed a bias incident complaint against Theis, and the district administration investigated the matter.

Officials determined that his books were a “hostile expression of animus toward another person relating to their actual or perceived gender identity.” They ordered him to remove the books or face discipline, which could include termination, citing a district speech policy that allowed the district to censor expression it deemed to target a certain group or that it found inappropriate. They also prohibited him from displaying Johnny the Walrus, a satirical children’s book on transgenderism that Theis had displayed in his office spaces at two other schools.

Theis attempted to appeal the district’s decision, but the superintendent denied his appeal in February 2025. Theis then filed a lawsuit in a federal district court in May 2025, contending district officials violated his speech rights.

Theis argued that officials allow some messages as decor but censored his views on biological sex. His lawsuit says that one teacher has displayed an LGBTQ Pride flag and another counselor has a flag that reads, “Black lives MATTER!”

In August 2025, a lower court partially ruled against the district, stating that officials could only ban the book display when students Theis was serving were in his office.

But days later, four eighth grade students entered the social worker’s office and asked to see the books. Theis attempted to redirect them, but the students continued to ask, according to the 9th Circuit’s dissenting opinion. He eventually let them view the books, as he wasn’t actively counseling the students. But a La Grande employee walked by and recorded the students reading the books. The teacher later filed a complaint against Theis using the video as evidence. District officials fired Theis for violating the court order.

Alliance Defending Freedom, which represents Theis, called the incident a “set-up” designed to give InterMountain an excuse to fire Theis. The students had no reason to be in the office and were prompted to be there by the same employee who recorded the incident, ADF alleged.

Theis challenged his termination in the district court, but the court denied his request to completely block the school’s action. In October 2025, he asked the 9th Circuit to review the ruling.

The majority rejected Theis’ claim that the display was protected speech. Circuit Judge John Owens wrote that the display fell under Theis’ core responsibilities in his work.

“As a government employee, Theis was assigned to work in school offices, meet with students, and carry out his duties in that setting,” Owens said. “His speech occurred in the course of those responsibilities and cannot be meaningfully separated from them.”

The majority said Theis’ case did not fall under the Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling in Kennedy v. Bremerton School District. There, the high court found that school district officials violated a high school football coach’s speech and religious rights after they suspended him for his 50-yard-line prayers after games.

The 9th Circuit majority said that, unlike the coach, Theis wasn’t “engaged in a moment of private expression detached from his role” while he displayed the books to students.

But Circuit Judge Lawrence VanDyke disagreed in a stinging dissent, calling the majority ruling “irreconcilable” with Kennedy. School employees don’t necessarily speak for the government just because students see their speech, VanDyke concluded.

He argued the majority’s opinion created an “expansive new rule” that potentially allows authorities to define all public school employees’ expression in front of students as government speech. Under this view, “when a teacher hangs a family portrait behind his desk, it is the government commemorating filial affection, not the teacher,” VanDyke wrote.

“The mere presence of students does not automatically transform all personal speech by government employees into government speech,” VanDyke said. “This is not that hard of a case.”

The Kennedy ruling clarified Theis’ speech rights, said Tyson Langhofer, an attorney for ADF, which represents Theis. Not everything teachers or school counselors say while on duty is government speech.

Theis is weighing the next steps in this case, Langhofer said. He could ask the full panel of judges at the 9th Circuit to rehear the appeal regarding his termination, or he could petition the Supreme Court. Other claims in his case are still pending in district court, Langhofer added, saying that Theis has yet to find other employment since being fired.

“It’s concerning for all teachers throughout Oregon and throughout the country who share Rod’s views,” Langhofer said. “[They] would simply like to be able to decorate their offices as other employees are allowed to decorate their offices.”

The ruling in Theis’ case follows a trend of Oregon schools discriminating against certain views, said Suzanne Gallagher, the executive director of Parents’ Rights in Education, which filed a brief on behalf of Theis.

In 2025, an Oregon school district agreed to pay $650,000 to settle a federal lawsuit from two former teachers fired for producing a video and website challenging the district’s gender secrecy policy.

“The schools have become very authoritarian in their discipline regarding what students or staff can say or do,” Gallagher said. “This is viewpoint discrimination. It’s a constitutional violation that undermines both free speech and the trust between schools and families.”