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In a recent development from central Indiana, a school district has agreed to a settlement exceeding half a million dollars with a former music teacher who left his position after declining to use transgender students’ chosen names and pronouns.
Legal documents reveal that the Brownsburg Community School Corporation has reached a settlement in a lawsuit involving John Kluge. Represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom, Kluge will receive $650,000 as part of the agreement. Additionally, the district committed to retraining senior staff on religious discrimination policies.
Kluge, who taught orchestra at Brownsburg High School, stepped down in 2018 following a policy shift mandating that staff address students by their preferred names and pronouns. Despite several legal victories favoring the district, officials opted for a settlement to avoid further legal proceedings.
According to court documents, Kluge joined the high school as a music and orchestra teacher in 2014. In 2017, the district implemented a requirement for teachers to use the identifiers listed in the student database, which could be updated with documentation from both a parent and a doctor.
On the first day of classes in 2017, Kluge informed Principal Bret Daghe of his religious objections to the new policy regarding transgender students. Initially, the administration allowed him to refer to students by their last names and excused him from distributing orchestra attire.
Policy change, accommodation and resignation
Court records detail how Kluge was hired in 2014 as the music and orchestra teacher for the high school. In 2017, district officials began requiring BHS teachers to use the identifiers listed in the official student database, where changes were allowed with letters from a parent and doctor.
Kluge told the school principal, Bret Daghe, on the first day of classes in 2017 that he had a religious objection to using transgender students’ names and pronouns. Officials then agreed he could call students by their last name and not be responsible for handing out orchestra clothing.
Previous reports show that this change made at least two transgender students feel singled out and hurt. Other students, teachers and counselors reportedly also told officials that Kluge’s classroom was uncomfortable for many.
In January 2018, the district reaffirmed the policy that teachers call trans students by their preferred names and genders, rather than those given at birth. Kluge said that after he questioned whether the rule applied to him, he was told he could abide by it, resign or be fired.
During a June 2018 school board meeting, Kluge’s resignation was accepted, even though he attempted to rescind the resignation. The teacher then sued the school for religious discrimination, alleging that his rights were violated by being forced to resign.
Legal battles, debate over ‘undue hardship’
A federal judge ruled in July 2021 that the district did not coerce Kluge’s resignation and that the school could not accommodate his religious beliefs without sustaining “undue hardship.” The court also said Kluge failed to make a meaningful argument or “adduce evidence.”
An April 2023 ruling by the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the Indianapolis federal court ruling. The appeals judge said district officials tried to accommodate Kluge’s religious objection, but realized that letting the music teacher use last names “resulted in students feeling disrespected, targeted, and dehumanized, and in disruptions to the learning environment.”
Then, in a new motion filed in Nov. 2023, Kluge’s legal team argued he was discriminated and retaliated against for his “sincerely held religious belief.” Attorneys said Kluge asked for and only temporarily received “a modest accommodation” to call all students by their last names “like a coach” and “allowing him to stay neutral on transgender issues and focus on teaching music.”
The filing claimed the district pressured Kluge to resign when “a few people grumbled” about the accommodation. When Kluge reportedly refused to resign, the accommodation was revoked, which the documents said forced him to resign or be fired.
Then, after the U.S. Supreme Court relitigated religious liberty and work accommodations in June 2023, the appeals court ruled Kluge’s case could be tried before a jury. Now, a settlement has been reached between Kluge and Brownsburg schools.
$650,000 payout, new staff training
Court records filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court’s Indianapolis Division show Kluge has reached a settlement agreement with the Brownsburg Community School Corporation. The teacher’s legal team, the Alliance Defending Freedom, later confirmed more details on the settlement.
The school district has reportedly agreed to pay Kluge $650,000 to settle the lawsuit. The agreement also states that Brownsburg schools will now train its senior staff “on how Title VII of the Civil Rights Act protects religious employees against discrimination,” according to the ADF.
ADF Senior Counsel David Cortman said in a statement that the case should show schools that “refusing to accommodate religious employees can be illegal and expensive.”
“After almost five and a half years, common sense has prevailed at Brownsburg,” Cortman said. “This settlement confirms what the law has always said: Public schools cannot force teachers to violate their religious beliefs. We hope this settlement shows teachers that they do not have to bow the knee to ideological mandates that violate their religious beliefs.”
The courts did not rule that Brownsburg schools had done anything illegal, however. In a statement Tuesday afternoon, officials reasserted that the district had “already prevailed on the majority of Mr. Kluge’s legal claims” and did not infringe on the right to freely exercise his religion.
“In 2018, John Kluge resigned his position with Brownsburg Community School Corporation. The school corporation has not wavered in its belief that Mr. Kluge’s decision to resign came after the school corporation followed its policy and applicable federal laws and acted in the best interest of its students. During seven years of litigation, multiple federal judges ruled in Brownsburg Schools’ favor and, at the time of settlement, Brownsburg Schools had prevailed on the majority of Mr. Kluge’s legal claims. After the Supreme Court revisited Title VII in 2023, Mr. Kluge’s Title VII claim survived and was heading for trial this spring. After careful and extended deliberation, it was deemed to be in the best interest of Brownsburg Schools’ financial situation to settle this case. We continue to believe that Mr. Kluge’s free speech rights and his rights to freely exercise his religion were not infringed at Brownsburg Schools.”
– Brownsburg Community School Corporation
FOX59/CBS4 has requested a copy of the settlement agreement reached by Kluge and Brownsburg schools to confirm the $650,000 payout and training requirements. We have not heard back as of this article’s publication.