When her youngest son started kindergarten last year, Lindsey Barr decided the time was right for her to head back to the classroom, too.

A former full-time early childhood education teacher in Bryan County, Ga., Barr was hired back by her local school district last January to serve as a substitute teacher.

Money was certainly part of the draw. "It was part of our budget," she said of the $125 she earned each day she subbed. But more than that, Barr simply has a passion for teaching. "I 100 percent believe I am very well suited to work with young children, and that God has given me the talent and the desire to do so," she said.

But Barr is no longer allowed to substitute at her Savannah-area school district. She was fired in August, she said, simply for expressing concerns to her elementary-school principal about a children's picture book the librarian intended to read to students, including Barr's sons.

The book, All Are Welcome, includes at least two images of same-sex parents and their kids, pictures that Barr says run counter to her religious beliefs that family formation should occur within the confines of a marriage of one man and one woman.

Barr's firing came on the heels of Georgia's new Parents' Bill of Rights, which went into effect in July, and affords parents the "right to review all instructional material intended for use in the classroom of his or her minor child." With the help of Alliance Defending Freedom, Barr filed a lawsuit against Bryan County School District leaders on September 30, alleging they violated her First Amendment right to free speech and her right to freely exercise her religion. School leaders engaged in unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination, Barr and the ADF lawyers argue.

"Whether or not you teach in the public schools, you have the right under Georgia law, but more importantly under the First Amendment, to express your views on what is being taught to your own children. That's what she did, and she got fired for it," said Phil Sechler, senior counsel with ADF. "I think this lawsuit does send an important message to public schools that they can't bully and intimidate people just because they don't like their views."

A spokeswoman for Bryan County Schools didn't respond to an email and voicemail from National Review. Attempts to reach McAllister Elementary School principal, Heather Tucker, were unsuccessful on Thursday.

Barr and her family live in Richmond Hill, a Savannah suburb located in Bryan County, which overwhelmingly backed Donald Trump and Georgia's two Republican Senate candidates in 2020. Barr told National Review that she and her family are devout non-denominational Christians. "We believe that the sufficiency of Scripture is how we live our lives," she said.

Barr had worked at Bryan County Schools for a decade, including four years as a kindergarten teacher at McAllister Elementary, before she temporarily stepped away from her career in 2018. As she grew in her Christian faith, she had felt God calling her to be home with her young family, she said. But when her youngest of three sons started school last year, Barr chose to head back to school, too – on her terms, as a substitute teacher.

Last winter and fall, Barr subbed about 15 times, mostly at McAllister Elementary, where her sons attend school. She expected to continue working this year, especially considering the district doesn't have enough subs to meet its needs, according to the lawsuit.

Barr's firing stems from concerns she raised in mid August about All Are Welcome, a 2019 picture book which was to be included in a new library read-aloud program called "Camp Read S'more." National Review obtained a copy of the book, which generally shows kids of different races, ethnicities, nationalities, and religions attending school together – making art projects, playing on the playground, showing science-fair projects, and eating a "dozen different kinds of bread." "Our strength is our diversity," the book says. It's a kindergarten-level diversity, equity, and inclusion book, but in an era when children's literature often celebrates drag queens, "anti-racism," and transgenderism, All Are Welcome is pretty anodyne.

While most of the adult couples in the book appear to be heterosexual, the book contains at least two scenes with drawings of what appear to be same-sex couples – two men, their arms around one another, walking a child to school; two women, one of whom appears to be pregnant, with their arms around one another, and one woman holding a child's hand. Those are the pictures that concerned Barr. She wanted her sons excluded from the library reading, and she wants them excused from any other lessons that involve homosexuality.

"I would like to be the one who gets to have tough conversations with my children about political topics, or topics that are culturally sensitive," she said.

Barr, who was not working at the time, reached out to her children's teachers, and they agreed to exclude her sons from the reading. On August 16, Barr emailed Tucker, the McAllister Elementary principal, telling her she had concerns with the illustrations in the book and about "the potential conversations" that could arise after a reading. They ended up talking the next day. The conversation was "fine" and "stayed very much on topic," Barr said, but she added that "I don't think that she liked it."

Barr said Tucker told her if she had any other concerns, she should send her an email. So Barr sent Tucker a photo she'd taken of a poster hanging in one of her son's classrooms last year. The poster included a drawing of two men with a heart between them, and the message, "All adults have the right to marriage and to raise a family."

"I'm not trying to make waves with anyone. I'm trying to protect my children," Barr wrote to Tucker. "This is an agenda. This is not ok. If I couldn't post bible verses in my newsletters or read scripture to my classes or cover my students aloud in prayer, this shouldn't be allowed either. It isn't equity and diversity. It's propaganda. You do not have to agree with me, but I appreciate you having the conversation and allowing me to see your perspective as a public school administrator."

The next day, Barr was unable to access the school portal she used to pick substitute teaching assignments, according to the lawsuit. She emailed Tucker, asking if she'd been removed as a sub from the school, but received no reply. A day later, the district's human-resources director scheduled a meeting with her. According to the lawsuit, in their August 23 meeting, Tucker fired Barr, telling her that her comments expressing her religious views "revealed biases that raised a question whether she could support every child."

"It was very tough, it was very difficult, for me to sit in front of them and them fire me for this. It's been a very difficult two months," Barr said.

On September 13, ADF sent a letter to Bryan County's assistant superintendent of teaching and learning, stating that Barr's concerns with the book constituted protected speech, and that terminating her for expressing her views was unconstitutional. The letter demanded that Barr be immediately reinstated. Sechler said all they've heard from the district is crickets. "Obviously, we would have preferred to handle this, just to have her back in her job; you can't do this, it's unconstitutional. And they just ignored us," he said.

Sechler said Barr's firing is a clear case of viewpoint discrimination. "If she had said something opposite, or different, in support of more pictures [highlighting same-sex couples], she wouldn't have gotten fired," he said.

And, the lawsuit notes, Barr didn't cause any public disturbances. She didn't demand the library reading be canceled, and she didn't tear down any posters expressing support for gay marriage. "It's not like the school can somehow point to some disruption that one of its employees did or made that affected its own functioning," he said. "That is a factor in the constitutional analysis."

Barr said she is now substitute teaching at a private school in the area, but she would like to go back to work in Bryan County Schools. Public schools, she said, shouldn't retaliate against any parent simply for expressing concerns about their children's education. "It has nothing to do with whether I'm a Christian or not, everything to do with, let's just be fair," she said.

The lawsuit calls for Barr to be reinstated, for a declaratory judgement acknowledging that her First and 14th Amendment rights were violated, for compensatory damages and attorneys' fees, and for the district to purge any records of Barr's dismissal. Barr said she filed the lawsuit not only for herself, but to protect other parents who have concerns about what and how their kids are being taught.

"I would like to at least pave the way for people to feel like they can voice their concerns without retaliation," she said. "Parents and teachers should not be fired for expressing their genuine concern, especially in regard to their own personal children."

THIS BREAKING NEWS ITEM IS PRESENTED BY

Substitute Teacher Fired from Georgia School for Objecting to Gay Parents in Children’s Book

Barr has filed a lawsuit against Bryan County School District leaders, alleging they violated her First Amendment ... READ MORE

You're invited to ISI's Gala for Western Civilization.

Join ISI on Thursday, October 13, at the historic Willard InterContinental Hotel in Washington, D.C. As a special bonus, before the gala, come to a free Modern Age Panel hosted by Dan McCarthy and featuring Harvey Mansfield. If you're under 30 — tickets are only $50! Reserve your seats now.

Learn more