Tennessee charter school network agrees to remove LGBT books from curriculum, attorneys say

A network of public charter schools in Tennessee has reportedly agreed to remove LGBT-themed children’s book from its curriculum that a legal group warned could potentially violate state law on parental consent. 

KIPP Nashville recently told the Tennessee Attorney General’s Office that it had removed the books after first grade teacher Eric Rivera requested a religious exemption from using them in his class, according to the conservative legal group First Liberty Institute (FLI), which specializes in First Amendment cases.

The group represented Rivera and sent KIPP Nashville a demand letter earlier this year after the school pressured him to use the books.

“We are thrilled that KIPP Nashville voluntarily removed books that could run afoul of parents’ rights under the Constitution and Tennessee law,” said FLI Senior Counsel Cliff Martin in a statement Thursday. “It is paramount that religious views be respected in schools.”

Rivera, a teacher at KIPP Antioch College Prep Elementary, noticed in January that two children’s books portraying same-sex marriage positively were part of the language arts curriculum.

Rivera, a devout Christian, objected to using the books and asked for a religious exemption. School officials allegedly threatened to fire him.

In February, FLI attorneys sent a letter to school officials protesting Rivera’s treatment, arguing that it violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which requires employers to accommodate the religious practices of their employees unless doing so imposes an “undue hardship” on the employer.

“Mr. Rivera’s sincerely held religious beliefs are protected under the First Amendment. Thus, he was within his rights to request a reasonable accommodation,” the letter stated.

“KIPP is unable to show that its rejection of Mr. Rivera’s requested accommodation and retaliatory punishment for his use of an assistant teacher advances any compelling state interest or that it was narrowly tailored to achieve such interest.”

The letter also raised concern that the charter school was violating state law, which requires parental consent before teaching certain topics, including sexual orientation and gender identity.

First Liberty Institute's Thursday statement explains that KIPP Nashville "proactively informed the Tennessee Attorney General’s Office that it removed substantial controversial materials, including numerous books, from its 2026-2027 curriculum in an effort to respect the religious beliefs of its staff, students, and parents." This move was done to comply with a Tennessee law requiring parental consent to teach about the concepts of sexual orientation or gender identity.

The move also follows the U.S. Supreme Court's 2025 ruling that parents must be given the ability to opt their children out of a Maryland school district's LGBT-themed curriculum materials over religious objections, reversing an appeals court ruling.

The Tennessee Public Charter School Commission, which authorizes charter schools like KIPP, provided a statement to FOX 17 explaining that schools like KIPP “must follow the same Tennessee academic standards as traditional public schools.”

“All schools are required to comply with the prohibited concepts law and must provide a form on their website for reporting violations,” the commission stated in February.

“The Commission provides a form for submitting complaints related to the prohibited concepts law as well as any other violations of charter school law on our website. Teachers and staff at charter schools are employees of the school or charter operator, and as such, all personnel matters are handled by the school.”

In March, the school agreed to give religious accommodations to all its staff, allowing employees who object to certain books to have co-workers read them to students instead.

“We are pleased that the school has made the right decision by accommodating Mr. Rivera for his deeply held religious views,” Martin said in a statement at the time. “Our client is deeply devoted to teaching and is grateful that his record has been cleared and reasonable accommodations will be provided going forward.”

Tennessee's prohibited concepts law was passed in 2021 and restricts the teaching of critical race theory and over a dozen other topics that the legislation deemed controversial. A legal challenge from the Tennessee Education Association was dismissed by a judge in 2025.