An Oregon high school track coach is suing his former employer, claiming he was fired by the school for expressing his opinion that transgender athletes are not biological women and should compete against each other.
John Parks, represented by the Chicago-based Liberty Justice Center (LJC), filed a federal lawsuit against the Lake Oswego School District (LOSD) on Wednesday. The veteran coach, who has coached high school, college and Olympic athletes for more than 40 years, accuses district officials of violating his First and Fourteenth Amendment rights by firing him without due process for expressing his views.
Transmission Park
On May 15, Parks, who was then the head track and cross country coach and teaching assistant at Lake Oswego High School (LOHS), sent an email to Peter Weber, executive director of the Oregon School Activities Association (OSAA), which oversees high school sports in Beaver County, Oregon. In the letter, Parks expressed concern about the impact of the OSAA's policy allowing transgender athletes to compete against girls, warning that it was “seriously flawed and discredits the very existence and value of girls' sports.”
“I support transgender students 100% in all educational, academic and social situations except for sports, where their bodies have a significant physical and hormonal advantage,” Parks wrote.
He warned that the OSAA's policy “has attracted national attention,” politicizing apolitical sport and harming female and transgender athletes alike. He also noted that the OSAA's policy is inconsistent with the “evidence-based” policies of many major international athletics organizations, including the International Olympic Committee and the World Sports Council.
Parks called for the creation of “gender-neutral, restroom-like open categories” that would give transgender athletes “an opportunity to compete but without mocking the reasons why women compete in their categories.”
Haskins in trouble
Parks sent the letter to Weber and a similar letter to State Senator Rob Wagner, but as a citizen, she first asked LOHS Principal Kristen Collyer and Athletic Director Chris Coleman to review the letter, neither of whom objected, until Marshall Haskins, OSAA's representative for diversity, equity and inclusion, decided to start a protest against Parks.
Nine days after Parks sent her letter, Haskins wrote to LOSD officials, describing Parks' actions (both sending the email and in his position as coach) as “a planned and calculated discriminatory act intended to deny (our transgender) student participation in the state tournament and to create a hostile environment to shame our student.”
Haskins further alleged that Parks engaged in various forms of “harassing and discriminatory conduct,” including “inciting spectators at state tournaments” and “booing student-athletes during medal ceremonies.”
Parks denies all the allegations and claims to have witnesses who can disprove many of them.
Haskins also filed a complaint with LOSD alleging Parks violated the district's non-discrimination policy by proposing to bar transgender athletes from competing with biological girls.
Parks receives unappealing termination notice
On June 12, Collyer informed Parks that an internal investigation into Haskins' allegations had concluded that a “predominance of the evidence” indicated that Parks had violated the company's anti-discrimination and harassment, intimidation and bullying policies, and that she was being terminated.
“Principal Colyer then told Parks that he 'had no right to send the letter to Senator Wagner' and that doing so would be 'unlawful,'” the lawsuit alleges.
Parks appealed the findings and his dismissal because he was never shown the evidence against him or given the opportunity to dispute the allegations, but his appeal was denied.
“I am a strong advocate for transgender rights, and for decades I have spoken out for fair and inclusive treatment of students of diverse gender and sexual identities, both on the athletics field and in the classroom,” Parks said in an LJC press release, “and I have seen how these athletic controversies have brought negative attention to the transgender community.”
In her letter to Weber, Parks wrote that she has “two relatives who are transgender” who agree with her and believe that “negative attention alienates many in society who would like to be supported in transgender legal efforts.”
Coaches demand free practice
Parks' lawsuit argued that his firing was “an act of retaliation arising from the exercise of his right to free speech,” but the Supreme Court has ruled that public schools cannot do so. “A teacher's exercise of his right to speak on matters of public importance is not a ground for removal from public office unless there is proof that he knowingly or recklessly made a false statement,” the Court declared in Pickering v. Board of Education (1968).
The lawsuit further alleges that LOSD violated Parks' 14th Amendment rights because “Mr. Parks was entitled to due process, including notice, a remedial hearing, and a meaningful opportunity to respond to the false allegations made against him,” but the school district failed to provide any of these.
Parks is asking the court to issue a preliminary and permanent injunction against LOSD's actions, reinstate him to his job and award him “monetary damages.”
“Coach Parks was retaliated against, falsely accused of discriminatory conduct, had his appeal denied, and was fired — all while exercising his constitutional free speech right as a private citizen,” said LJC Senior Counsel Buck Dougherty. “We are proud to defend his constitutional rights through this litigation, and look forward to holding the district and board accountable for this egregious violation of free speech and due process.”
