OAN Staff Katherine Mosack
2:07 PM – Friday, November 7, 2025
A federal appeals court in Ohio ruled against the fourth-largest school district in the state, deciding that the district may not punish students for using biological pronouns — pronouns aligned with a person’s biological sex — or gender-related language, even if other students find the language offensive or derogatory.
This means that students cannot be reprimanded for purposely “misgendering” other gender dysphoric students who choose to identify as the opposite sex.
The Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Olentangy Local School District cannot bar students from using gender-specific language that others may find offensive during a 10-7 decision on Thursday, where the court sided with the group Parents Defending Education.
“Defending Education is a national, grassroots nonprofit empowering parents to advocate for classrooms that educate – not indoctrinate,” according to the group’s website.
The organization first filed a suit against Olentangy in 2023, arguing that the district’s policies that required the use of peers’ “preferred pronouns were a violation of students’ rights under the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.
“Our society continues to debate whether biological pronouns are appropriate or offensive — just as it continues to debate many other issues surrounding transgender rights,” Thursday’s ruling said, written by Circuit Judge Eric Murphy for the majority. “The school district may not skew this debate by forcing one side to change the way it conveys its message or by compelling it to express a different view.”
The court believed the district had “fallen short” of upholding a standard that allowed speech that would “materially and substantially disrupt” school activities or infringe on the legal rights of others in the community, and judges also noted that the district failed to provide substantial evidence “that the use of biological pronouns would disrupt school functions or qualify as harassment.”
“Common sense says that Olentangy’s policies aren’t helping students by compelling their peers to parrot words they don’t really believe,” said Cam Norris, an attorney for Parents Defending Education. “They are harming them by teaching them that different world views should be silenced and banned, not understood and rebutted.”
Thursday’s ruling reversed a decision made by a three-judge panel of the 6th Circuit in July 2024. The previous ruling found that the school district had shown that its prohibited speech would disrupt classroom activities.
The judges on Thursday sent the case back to U.S. District Judge Algenon Marbley in Columbus, Ohio, to initiate a preliminary injunction against Olentangy enforcing LGBT+ pronoun policies.
The case addressed district certain policies that prohibit the use of gender-related language that some deem insulting or dehumanizing, calling instead for the use of “preferred pronouns.”
The electronic devices policy bars “disruptive” material, or any material that could be seen as harassing other students based on their gender identity or sexual orientation. An antidiscrimination policy, meanwhile, prohibits students from using “discriminatory language,” such as derogatory comments, jokes, or slurs based on protected characteristics such as gender identity.
It is unclear how widely the ruling will apply across the state.
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