Fired school counselor loses again after free speech fight over gender-themed books in his office

A federal appeals court ruled earlier this week that a now-fired Oregon school counselor’s display of books promoting binary gender views to students was not protected by the First Amendment.The 2-1 decision handed down by the 9th U.S.

Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday upheld Roderick E. Theis II’s termination from Oregon’s InterMountain Education Service District (IMESD), according to court documents obtained by Fox News Digital.The court also rejected Theis’ appeal.

CHICAGO COLLEGE REMOVES LGBTQ PRIDE FLAG OVER INSTITUTIONAL NEUTRALITY CONCERNSAccording to the ruling, Theis, an education specialist who worked for the IMESD for more than 15 years, displayed books titled "He is He" and "She is She" in two separate offices on different campuses when meeting with middle school students.He also displayed a children’s book penned by conservative commentator Matt Walsh, titled "Johnny the Walrus," that "allegorically comments on transgender issues," court documents said.Following an investigation into the incident, Theis told school administrators that he did not mean any harm by displaying the books and even considered putting them away when transgender-identifying students visited his office.

WISCONSIN TEACHER FIRED AFTER SOCIAL MEDIA POST ADVOCATING TO 'MAKE AMERICANS GREAT ASSASSINS AGAIN'However, IMESD concluded the display of the books was a "bias incident" and instructed the counselor to remove them from his school offices — or risk termination.A federal judge later partially granted Theis’ request for a protective order that allowed him to continue displaying the books in his offices when students were not visiting, but his employment was ultimately terminated after a district investigation revealed Theis provided the books to middle school students who had requested to see them, according to the ruling.Theis’ attorneys went on to argue that the counselor was protected from the injunction when meeting with students outside of their official sessions, but a lower