Free Speech

Eugene Volokh | 10.29.2025 8:33 AM

From Galdos-Shapiro v. Town of Great Barrington, decided Oct. 17 by Judge Mark Mastroianni (D. Mass.):

Beginning in 2018, Plaintiff worked as an English Language Arts teacher at Du Bois Regional Middle School in Great Barrington, Massachusetts…. [Superintendent] Dillon appointed her advisor to the school's local chapter of the Gender and Sexuality Alliance ("GSA"). Although paid, this position was primarily administrative, as she oversaw the local branch of "a national network of student-run organizations which unite LGBTQ and allied youth in an effort to build their community and to enable them to organize around issues impacting them in their schools and communities." It was Plaintiff's job to "facilitate a space and opportunity for the students themselves to undertake activities." She therefore opened her classroom during the seventh and eighth grade lunch and recess periods each Friday for the GSA's student run meetings. Plaintiff additionally acted as faculty liaison to the school's student run "Black, Indigenous, and People of Color Club," a group that met during the weekly Friday "crew period." …

Gender Queer is a graphic memoir addressing "issues of self-identity, the confusion of adolescence, and coming out as nonbinary." … Gender Queer is not part of the curriculum at Du Bois. It is not required to be kept in any classroom, nor must it be read by any student who does not wish to do so. Rather, Plaintiff kept a personally owned copy of the book in her classroom.

At one point in time, Plaintiff loaned the book to Du Bois's library for exhibition during a "Banned Book Week," but normally the book resided on a special bookshelf within her room dedicated to the GSA. To access the book, an interested student was required to obtain permission from Plaintiff. During her tenure at Du Bois, only one student sought access to the book. This student and the student's parents were well known to Plaintiff, and it was Plaintiff's understanding that the student's parents approved of their child's access to the book.

Before December 8, 2023, there was never a challenge to the presence of Gender Queer in Plaintiff's classroom, despite the Berkshire Hills Regional School District providing a formal mechanism for an individual or group to challenge the presence of a book in a classroom….

In early December of 2023, Great Barrington Police received a visit from "an individual wishing to remain anonymous." Defendant [police officer] O'Brien interviewed this person and, as requested by this person, treated them with complete public anonymity. This tipster, subsequently identified as the night janitor at Du Bois, provided O'Brien with pictures he had taken of illustrations in Gender Queer. These images depicted two characters engaging in sexual acts. [The opinion doesn't include the relevant images, but you can see copies of what appear to be the most controversial images from the book from a different opinion, here and

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