Government schools have made it very clear that Christians are not welcome.
One administrator decided to shred the Constitution and move to straight up persecution.
And a Nashville school threatened to fire a Christian teacher for not reading this sick book.
KIPP Nashville Told Him: Believe as We Do or Get Out
Eric Rivera is a devout Christian who taught first graders at KIPP Antioch College Prep Elementary, a publicly funded charter school in Nashville operating under the Tennessee Public Charter School Commission.
When he discovered his Language Arts curriculum included Stella Brings the Family – a book about a girl with two dads – he didn't storm out, refuse to show up, or make a scene.
He arranged for a colleague to handle the read-aloud while he stayed in the classroom to observe.
Every child in that class heard the book.
Rivera's only act of conscience was declining to personally deliver material that violated his Christian beliefs about marriage.
The next day, the principal summoned him and handed him a "Final Warning" letter threatening termination.
The letter said Rivera had failed to teach the curriculum "with fidelity."
He had no disciplinary history and no prior warnings of any kind – until the day he arranged for a colleague to cover two books he couldn't read in good conscience.
The Law Couldn't Be Clearer
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act requires employers to accommodate religious beliefs unless doing so creates a substantial burden on the business.
The Supreme Court sharpened that standard further in Groff v. DeJoy in 2023, ruling that employers must show real, meaningful cost – not a hypothetical inconvenience – before denying a religious accommodation.
A colleague covering a read-aloud while Rivera remained in the room doesn't come close to that bar.
"KIPP cannot demonstrate any undue hardship here," First Liberty senior counsel Cliff Martin wrote in the legal demand letter sent to the school on Rivera's behalf.
Rivera then formally requested a religious accommodation.
The school's answer was to reassign him – first to a technology lab, then to kindergarten – and tell him he couldn't return to first grade while holding traditional beliefs about marriage.
"Requiring a teacher violate their religious beliefs in order to keep their job is blatant discrimination that violates the Civil Rights Act," Martin told Fox News Digital.
The Supreme Court Already Settled This Fight
Last June, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in Mahmoud v. Taylor that parents have a constitutional right to opt their children out of LGBT-themed curriculum in government schools.
Writing for the majority, Justice Alito held that government cannot force families to accept instruction that poses a real threat of undermining the religious beliefs parents wish to instill in their children.
First Liberty is now arguing what follows directly from that ruling: if parents have that right, a Christian teacher who personally objects to reading the same material has it too.
Tennessee law adds another problem for KIPP – it requires parental notification before schools introduce "sexual orientation or gender identity curriculum."
First Liberty's demand letter says KIPP may have never sent that notification, raising a separate potential violation on top of the Title VII claim.
The letter asks KIPP to clear Rivera's record, stop discriminating against religious employees, and fix its notification policies – or face litigation.
They Removed Him Because He's a Christian
The principal didn't just reject Rivera's accommodation request.
She told him that belief in same-sex marriage was so fundamental to the language arts unit that he couldn't teach any portion of it – not even the parts that had nothing to do with the two books he objected to.
A man who holds the same view of marriage that every American held fifty years ago is now unfit to teach first grade at a publicly funded school in Tennessee.
The school didn't reassign him because of any legitimate need.
They reassigned him because a Christian teacher with Christian beliefs was standing in their classroom, and that was the problem.
The Supreme Court told government schools they don't own the conscience of the people inside their walls.
KIPP Nashville ignored that – and now they're about to find out what that costs.
Sources:
- Cliff Martin, "Nashville First Grade Teacher Banished from Classroom," First Liberty Institute, February 18, 2026.
- Samantha Kamman, "First-grade teacher threatened with termination for refusing to read LGBT-themed book," The Christian Post, February 22, 2026.
- "Nashville teacher allegedly threatened with termination for refusing to read LGBTQ book to first graders," Fox News Digital, February 2026.
- U.S. Supreme Court, Mahmoud v. Taylor, 606 U.S. ___ (June 27, 2025).
- U.S. Supreme Court, Groff v. DeJoy, 143 S. Ct. 2279 (2023).
- "Conscience on file," World News Group podcast transcript, February 2026.
