BS BULLETIN:
- KIPP Nashville has removed more than 20 books and other materials from its curriculum after a months-long religious-freedom battle that began when Christian first-grade teacher Eric Rivera refused to personally read a book featuring same-sex parents to his students.
- Rivera was initially threatened with termination and given a “Final Warning” ordering him to maintain “fidelity to the curriculum,” even though he arranged for another teacher to read the material while he remained in the classroom.
- KIPP later wiped the discipline from Rivera’s record, agreed to accommodate similar religious objections and has now told Tennessee officials it removed materials from its 2026–27 curriculum to comply with state parental-consent requirements.
Six months ago, Eric Rivera was the problem.
Now apparently it’s the books.
KIPP Nashville has removed more than 20 books and other materials from its curriculum following a months-long fight that began when Rivera, a Christian first-grade teacher, said his religious beliefs prevented him from personally teaching material promoting same-sex marriage.
And what a difference six months makes.
The controversy began in January at KIPP Antioch College Prep Elementary School.
Rivera discovered that two children’s books portraying same-sex marriage were included in the first-grade language arts curriculum.
One was “Stella Brings the Family,” a children’s book about a little girl with two dads.
Rivera objected.
But he didn’t simply refuse to let his students hear the lesson.
He arranged for another teacher to read the material while he remained in the classroom and observed.
Problem solved?
Not quite.
Rivera was summoned to the principal’s office the following day, according to First Liberty Institute, the religious-liberty organization that eventually represented him.
There he was allegedly threatened with termination and handed a “Final Warning.”
The letter ordered Rivera to “maintain fidelity to the curriculum, teaching all lessons in the KIPP Nashville Scope and Sequence” and to “use the materials, books and resources provided by the curriculum.”
In other words: Read the book.
Rivera instead called the lawyers.
First Liberty sent KIPP a demand letter arguing that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act required the school to reasonably accommodate Rivera’s sincerely held religious beliefs unless doing so created an undue hardship.
The lawyers also raised another issue.
Tennessee law requires parental consent before schools provide certain instruction involving sexual orientation or gender identity. “Mr. Rivera’s sincerely held religious beliefs are protected under the First Amendment,” First Liberty argued.
The organization said Rivera’s simple solution — having another teacher deliver the material — provided an obvious accommodation without preventing students from receiving the lesson.
By March, KIPP had changed course.
The school cleared Rivera’s disciplinary record and agreed that teachers with religious objections could ask another employee to read objectionable materials. “We are pleased that the school has made the right decision by accommodating Mr. Rivera for his deeply held religious views,” First Liberty senior counsel Cliff Martin said at the time.
But that wasn’t the end of it.
Now the curriculum itself has changed. KIPP Nashville proactively informed the Tennessee Attorney General’s Office that it removed numerous books and other materials from its 2026–27 curriculum, according to First Liberty.
Newer reporting puts the number at more than 20 books.
The organization says KIPP made the changes in an effort to respect the religious rights of staff, students and parents and to comply with Tennessee’s parental-consent requirements. “We are thrilled that KIPP Nashville voluntarily removed books that could run afoul of parents’ rights under the Constitution and Tennessee law,” Martin said Thursday.
Then came the larger point: “It is paramount that religious views be respected in schools.”
This isn’t a statewide government order removing LGBT books from Tennessee libraries. KIPP Nashville is a public charter-school network operating 10 schools, and according to First Liberty, it voluntarily removed the materials from its own curriculum. Nor did Rivera demand that his students be prohibited from hearing the original lesson. His proposed accommodation was that somebody else read it. That makes the initial threat of termination considerably harder to understand.
KIPP’s reversal also comes after the Supreme Court’s major 2025 religious-liberty decision involving Maryland parents who objected to LGBT-themed books being used with their elementary-school children. The Court held that parents must be allowed to opt their children out when such instruction substantially interferes with their religious upbringing.
Between that decision, Tennessee’s parental-consent law and Rivera’s Title VII claim, KIPP apparently decided this wasn’t a hill worth dying on.
So the teacher who was once ordered to maintain “fidelity to the curriculum” got his record cleared.
Teachers got a religious accommodation.
And now more than 20 books are reportedly out of the curriculum.
That’s quite a plot twist for a story that began with a first-grade teacher asking someone else to read a children’s book.
DBS WIRE SOURCES
- Fox News — Nashville school pulls LGBT books after Christian teacher was disciplined for refusing to read one
- First Liberty Institute — Nashville Charter Schools Remove Books Referencing Same-Sex Marriage from Curriculum
- The Center Square — TN teacher seeks religious accommodation; LGBTQ books removed
- The Christian Post — Tennessee charter school network agrees to remove LGBT books from curriculum, attorneys say
- Fox News — Nashville teacher has record cleared after refusing to read same-sex marriage book to first-graders
