Ryan Bomberger bashes ruling against school employee fired for displaying 'She is She' book
Author and Christian activist Ryan Bomberger has denounced a recent appeals court ruling against an Oregon public school employee who was fired for displaying books written by Bomberger and his wife, Bethany, that promote the biological understanding of sex.
Oregon public school employee Roderick E. Theis II is waging a legal battle over whether he can lawfully display the books He is He and She is She, two children’s books authored by Ryan and Bethany Bomberger.
Theis is represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a conservative legal nonprofit that has successfully argued First Amendment cases before the United States Supreme Court.
In an interview with The Christian Post on Friday, Ryan Bomberger called a recent 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel ruling against Theis “outrageous."
“Once again, they fall on the wrong side of the Constitution," Bomberger said.
“The very anti-First Amendment ruling basically says that biological facts or expressing biological facts are not protected speech,” he added, noting that Theis was “fired simply for expressing a personal viewpoint.”
Bomberger, who was made aware of the lawsuit by ADF, told CP that he and the Theis family “have been in communication numerous times,” with Bomberger providing “moral support,” prayers and opinion columns defending Theis.
“Government workers don't lose their First Amendment right when they step onto taxpayer-funded property,” he added.
A licensed clinical social worker with the Elgin School District, Theis worked at La Grande Middle School as an education specialist, with his duties including meetings with students.
At his La Grande office, Theis displayed the books He is He and She is She, as well as the children’s book Johnny the Walrus by conservative Christian social commentator Matt Walsh.
In 2024, the school district received a complaint about Theis displaying the books, with officials demanding that Theis remove the books or face disciplinary action, including termination.
Theis filed a lawsuit against the school district and other officials in May 2025, claiming that they were violating his First Amendment rights by banning the books.
On July 21, a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit ruled 2-1 against Theis, with Circuit Judge John B. Owens, an Obama appointee, authoring the majority opinion.
Owens rejected Theis’ constitutional argument, writing that “the First Amendment protects a public employee’s speech only when he speaks as a citizen, rather than as part of his official duties.”
“Theis’s speech occurred within the scope of his professional role,” wrote Owens. “Theis does not dispute that his speech was aimed at students.”
“This case is therefore distinguishable from those in which a school employee engages in the challenged speech off school grounds or while performing tasks unrelated to the school’s ordinary operations, and from cases in which the employee does not direct his speech to students.”
Owens contrasted Theis’ case with that of the 2022 Supreme Court case Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, in which the high court ruled 6-3 that a public high school coach could pray on the football field after games.
“Coach Kennedy’s prayer occurred when he was not engaged in his official duties, not instructing or supervising students, and not speaking in a manner that could reasonably be attributed to the school,” Owens continued.
“Unlike Coach Kennedy, who was off the clock, Theis was not engaged in a moment of private expression detached from his role. To the contrary, he was engaged in his core professional responsibilities.”
Circuit Judge Lawrence VanDyke, a Trump appointee, dissented, arguing in part that the display of books was no more government speech than if Theis had displayed a family photo.
“When a student sees personal materials hanging in a teacher’s office, they naturally identify that ornamentation as reflecting the teacher’s own personal views,” wrote VanDyke.
“And while not all private speech is protected within the school context, school officials’ distaste for a personal viewpoint can never provide an adequate justification for censorship.”
Bomberger called the conclusions of the panel majority “absurd," saying that when they cited the Kennedy decision, “they completely distorted it.”
“Kennedy was actually operating in his function as a coach with the team when he was praying publicly as part of the football game,” he continued. “If a teacher has a verse on their desk, is that government speech? If a teacher wears a cross around their neck, are people to suppose that that's government speech? Of course not.”
Bomberger contends that the viewpoint that Theis was conveying “was simply mirroring what” the school where he was employed “teach[es] in the science classes.”
“They teach biological binary gender,” Bomberger said. “So, it seems insane for the judge to come to that conclusion. It's not part of a curriculum that he was teaching, he wasn't even reading from it.”
“It was just a display that reinforces what the school already teaches.”
