Contact: Brad Dacus, Pacific Justice Institute, 916-616-4126

WASHINGTON, July 12, 2017 /Christian Newswire/ -- The Trump Administration's Office for Civil Rights issued a memo on transgender students that threatens the religious rights and freedom of speech in schools across the country. The memo, written by Candice Jackson, Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, states that investigations will be made into noncompliance issues where an individual refuses to address a transgender student by their desired name or pronoun.

The OCR memo bluntly labels the refusal of a student or teacher to accommodate a transgender student's preferences as an act "of verbal, nonverbal, or physical aggression, intimidation, or hostility based on sex or sex-stereotyping."

Teachers and students would be forced to learn and use confusing, ever-growing lists of new pronouns. Noncompliance for any reason or misuse of pronouns would easily lead to severe penalties for teachers and students. Although the memo briefly refers to cases involving transgender bathroom issues, its main focus is on the demand for transgender individuals to be addressed by their desired titles.

Brad Dacus, President of the Pacific Justice Institute, made the following statement: "While school districts should have policies protecting all students from harassment, we're deeply disappointed by the Trump Administration's action that endangers the liberties of students, teachers, and administrators."

Dacus is available for media inquiries—including live interviews from PJI's television and radio studio—to further comment on the OCR memo.