John Parks, former girls' track coach at Lake Oswego (Oregon) High School, sent a letter in May to the Oregon School Activities Association (OSAA) about laws related to transgender students. In that letter, he encouraged the state to adopt a transgender athlete policy that would create an open division where "all sex and gender identities" are welcome to compete, according to Fox News.
Reportedly, Parks also sent letters to State Sen. Rob Wagner, in which the coach argued that Oregon's current state laws are a disservice to girls' sports.
Now, Parks is fighting to get his job back after the school district let him go in June. The Liberty Justice Center filed a First Amendment lawsuit on Parks' behalf in July, claiming he was fired for his stance against a boy competing in girls' track. Just before Thanksgiving, a judge said he believes the coach was within his "protected speech."
Brad Dacus is president and founder of Pacific Justice Institute, based in Sacramento, California. He tells AFN that Parks has done nothing wrong.
"This coach in Oregon has every right under the First Amendment to express his opposition to radical leftist policies that undermine the rights and opportunities of young female athletes," he argues.
Furthermore, according to Dacus, this coach is in the right – and that his legal firm is committed to ensuring similar attempts to undermine girls' and women's sports across the country are not successful.
"We have to protect the ability for young girls pursuant to Title IX to be able to compete among females – not among biological males with an obvious unfair advantage," Dacus concludes.
In 2023, Pacific Justice Institute represented a California high school gym teacher who had been fired after requesting a religious accommodation from demands to refer to transgender students by their preferred pronouns, to lie to parents who were unaware of their student's gender confusion, and to allow transgender students to use opposite-sex locker rooms.
Ultimately the school district did not admit to doing anything wrong but agreed to pay the teacher, Jessica Tapia, $285,000, plus an additional $75,000 for her attorneys' fees.
