A Nashville elementary school teacher says he was threatened with firing after asking for a religious accommodation to avoid reading a children’s book featuring a same-sex family to his first-grade class. The dispute has drawn national attention as a potential clash between religious liberty and public school curriculum requirements.
Eric Rivera, a first-grade teacher at KIPP Antioch College Prep Elementary in Nashville, Tennessee, told news outlets he found the book Stella Brings the Family — which features a girl with two fathers — included in the school’s language arts curriculum. Rivera said the assigned reading conflicted with his deeply held Christian beliefs about marriage and family, and he requested a religious accommodation so that a co-teacher could read the material instead.
Rivera says administrators initially agreed to have a colleague read the book while he remained in the classroom. But the next day he was summoned by the principal and issued a “final warning” letter stating that he must teach the lesson as planned “with fidelity” or face termination. He said he had no prior disciplinary record before the incident.
According to reports, Rivera was later reassigned away from first grade, first to technology instruction and then to a kindergarten classroom. He remains employed at the school but said the experience has left him fearful of losing his job for expressing his religious convictions.
Rivera is now represented by the First Liberty Institute, a legal organization specializing in religious-freedom cases. The group has sent a demand letter to the charter school and school officials citing Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which requires employers to provide reasonable religious accommodations unless it would cause undue hardship. First Liberty’s letter also raised concerns about whether parents were properly notified about the LGBTQ lesson in accordance with state requirements. The legal group has asked school leadership to respond within a specified deadline.
Supporters of Rivera’s position argue that requiring teachers to read material that contradicts their faith beliefs without accommodation amounts to discrimination based on religion. They contend that federal law protects employees’ rights to seek accommodation for sincerely held religious beliefs. Opponents, including many public education advocates, argue that teachers in public schools must follow established curricula and that classroom instruction should reflect inclusivity and nondiscrimination.
The case highlights growing tensions in American public education over LGBTQ-related content, religious liberty, and parental rights. Similar disputes over LGBTQ books and curriculum have reached courts and school boards across the country, with legal outcomes varying based on state law and federal jurisprudence.
