A judge has ruled in favor of the Lake Oswego (Ore.) High School track coach, John Parks, who earlier this year claimed he was fired for sending letters to state officials regarding transgender athlete participation.
Coach Parks is seeking to return to his former position as the Lake Oswego High School track coach and special education assistant.
According to Fox News, “In a hearing on Friday, Parks' lawyer said the district's decision to fire Parks after the email was a ‘violation of his free speech,’ and he should ‘be restored to his job.’” And in an email following Friday’s hearing, U.S. District Judge Michael H. Simon agreed with Parks’ lawyer. Simon wrote that he believed Parks’ actions fell, “within protected speech made by a private citizen.”
"Coach Parks was retaliated against, falsely accused of discriminatory behavior, denied an appeal and fired — just for exercising his constitutional right to free speech as a private citizen,” explained Buck Dougherty, senior counsel at the Liberty Justice Center.
Earlier this year, Coach Parks wrote letters to Peter Weber, the executive director of the Oregon Student Activities Association (OSAA) and Rob Wagner, an Oregon state senator. In these letters, Parks argued that Oregon should adopt transgender student-athlete participation guidelines that more closely align with the IOC and other professional organizations. The current rules for transgender athlete participation in Oregon say, “students can compete based on their ‘consistently asserted gender identity.’”
When he was fired from his position, Parks was adamant in saying, “I'm fully supportive of transgender rights,” and he continued, “We can create an open division for the transgender athletes, and I really think what that's going to do is actually encourage more transgender kids to participate.” Having coached several transgender student-athletes, Parks understands the challenges these athletes face better than most. He said he, “supports them like all other athletes."
