The Indiana school district that fired a school counselor over its gender identity policy has reportedly agreed to pay her $195,000 for damages, attorneys’ fees, and costs.
Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys represented 37-year veteran educator Kathy McCord in the dispute with South Madison Community School Corporation.
ADF says that in August 2021, the school required employees to use names and pronouns for gender-confused students that do not correspond with their biological sex, without notifying parents or seeking parental consent. “In some cases, it even required employees to hide the new names and pronouns from parents,” the non-profit legal group contends.
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McCord objected to the policy but ADF reports she was told to comply or lose her job.
Then, a reporter learned about the school’s directive and asked McCord if she could confirm the information. When she did, the reporter published his story and SMCSC fired McCord, accusing her of lying about revealing their policy to a journalist.
ADF reports the district has now settled the federal lawsuit relating to the incident.
But WTHR reports the school corporation is celebrating the outcome, saying it has not admitted any wrongdoing. It released a statement headlined “COURT RULES IN FAVOR OF SMCSC”:
“In August 2025, the Court ruled in favor of SMCSC on the majority of Ms. McCord’s claims, including a finding that the District did not violate her First Amendment rights.
While the District feels confident it would have prevailed on the only remaining claims if they had proceeded to trial, the parties have now reached a settlement. SMCSC chose to settle to avoid the significant time, expense, and disruption of continued litigation and to allow the District to remain focused on serving students. SMCSC has not admitted any wrongdoing, and the Court made no findings of liability against the District.”
ADF considers the settlement a win for McCord.
“No American should be fired for expressing her beliefs, especially not an educator speaking in her personal capacity, on her own time, and out of concern for her students,” said ADF Senior Counsel Vincent Wagner. “Kathy knows that kids do best when schools and parents work together. But South Madison left parents in the dark. It’s regrettable that South Madison made Kathy endure three years of litigation to get to this point, but we are pleased with this result for Kathy.”
After McCord’s lawsuit was initially filed, a new Indiana law HB 1608 was instituted, requiring schools to notify parents if their children are struggling with gender confusion.
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