‘Johnny The Walrus’ And Other ‘Transphobic’ Books Targeted By Oregon School District, Lawsuit Says

An Oregon education worker is suing his district, claiming it threatened to fire him for displaying several “transphobic” books, including Daily Wire host Matt Walsh’s children’s book “Johnny the Walrus.”

Rod Theis has worked as an education specialist at the InterMountain Education Service District outside of Portland since 2008. In his office, Theis had displayed several children’s books, including two titled “He is He” and “She is She” as well as “Johnny the Walrus,” all books with messages rejecting transgender ideology.

A school employee saw some of the books and complained that they were “transphobic,” even filing a “bias incident” complaint with the district, the lawsuit says.

In response, the district opened an investigation and ultimately “ordered him to remove them and threatened him with discipline simply because it disagreed with the books’ content,” Theis’ lawsuit against the district, which he filed Wednesday, claims.

The district said the books were a “hostile expression of animus toward another person relating to their actual or perceived gender identity” and warned him that “further conduct of this nature” may result in discipline, including termination, the suit says.

Meanwhile, the district was allegedly allowing other employees to decorate in support of transgender ideology as well as “Black Lives Matter” and support for the teachers’ union.

“In their investigation, they didn’t say you can’t decorate your office with any messages,” Tyson Langhofer, senior counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom, which is representing Theis, told The Daily Wire. “They said you can’t express this message, and many other employees and the school district themselves are able to express messages about gender and sex and LGBT-themed messages, but they specifically disagreed with this message.”

“The policy itself is problematic because it defines bias incident in very, very broad subjective terms, and it grants the school officials very wide latitude in determining what is a bias incident,” he said, noting that the policy uses “subjective” terms like “demeaning” or “derogatory.”

“But on top of that, the way they’re enforcing it here is very discriminatory,” he said.

“We’re definitely optimistic because the First Amendment is very clear that the government cannot target certain viewpoints for censorship,” Langhofer said, adding that “they made it very clear that it was Rod’s viewpoint that was being targeted.”

The lawsuit alleges the education district violated the First and Fourteenth Amendments, and demands Theis be awarded damages and allowed to display the books immediately. It also asks that the district’s policy be declared unconstitutional.

Theis’ Christian faith informs his views around gender, his lawsuit says, including that “God created every person male or female, and that people should accept their God-given sex and not seek to reject or change it.”

“Everyone should be able to speak freely without fear of the government coming after you just because you expressed a view they disagree with,” Theis said in a statement to The Daily Wire.

Theis emphasized that his district “allows its employees to express various messages when decorating their offices, including political ones. But I was singled out and censored because I expressed a particular set of views that officials disliked.”

“Americans cannot learn to respect each other’s differences when they face the threat of career-crushing consequences anytime their personal beliefs contradict the ideological commitments of government officials,” he said.