The Brownsburg Community School Corporation, an Indiana school district, has agreed to pay a music teacher $650,000 for violating his religious beliefs by forcing him to affirm transgender students’ gender identities.
Orchestra teacher John Kluge began teaching at Brownsburg High School in 2014 but resigned in 2018 following a school policy change that forced school staff to refer to students by preferred names and pronouns inconsistent with their biological sex, regardless of religious convictions.
Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, Kluge had at first received a religious accommodation from the policy requiring teacher to affirm students’ “preferred identity.” The school had warned teachers if they used “the wrong name/pronoun,” they could face discipline. However, the school permitted Kluge to call students by their last names rather than their first. Kluge followed this rule for roughly a year before two students complained. Following the student’s objections, the school instilled the 2017 policy forcing all teachers to adhere to the policy regardless of religious convictions.
The school told Kluge to abide by the rule or face termination. Although he attempted to negotiate, the school refused to allow him an accommodation. Following his resignation, Kluge sued the district for violating his Title VII rights. Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) represented Kluge in the case.
The case reached the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit in August 2025, which ruled that in light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Groff v. DeJoy decision, a ruling favoring religious workplace accommodations, the case should be heard in a trial before a jury. Brownsburg then settled the lawsuit.
In addition to paying the $650,000 to Kluge, the school district agreed to have Brownsburg train its senior staff on Title VII’s protection of religious employees.
David Cortman, ADF senior counsel and vice president of U.S. Litigation, stated in a press release that ADF hopes the settlement “shows teachers that they do not have to bow the knee to ideological mandates that violate their religious beliefs.”
“After almost five and a half years, common sense has prevailed at Brownsburg,” said Cortman. “This settlement confirms what the law has always said: Public schools cannot force teachers to violate their religious beliefs. Title VII requires employers to accommodate their employees’ religious beliefs and practices. When they fail to do so—or worse, announce that they will grant no religious accommodations, as Brownsburg did—they can be held accountable.”
