A federal judge ruled Monday against a Little Miami High School teacher who argued his First Amendment rights were violated when he was ordered to remove a “Hate Has No Home Here” poster from his classroom, siding with the Little Miami School District and its school board president, The Cincinnati Enquirer reported.
U.S. District Judge Matthew W. McFarland’s November 9 decision found that teacher George McIntyre was speaking “as a government employee” and not as a private citizen in displaying the poster, which shows hands holding heart-shaped flags, including the LGBTQ+ pride flag. In speaking as a government employee, the board was entitled to restrain his speech and his First Amendment right was not violated, according to the decision reported by The Enquirer.
“McIntyre’s authority to shape his classroom environment remained subject to the Board’s oversight,” the decision said, according to The Enquirer. “That oversight reflects the allocation of educational decisions to elected school boards, which are accountable to the public for the choices made on their behalf.”
The dispute began when board President David Wallace, who made the initial complaint about the poster, visited McIntyre’s classroom in the fall of 2025 and took photos of it, according to court records cited by The Enquirer. In a 4-1 vote on February 25 of this year, the Warren County district’s board opted to remove the poster, reasoning that the display violated a district policy against content “relating to sexual orientation or gender identity.”
Little Miami adopted that policy in October 2025 to adhere to Ohio’s House Bill 8, dubbed the “Parents’ Bill of Rights,” which requires schools to notify parents of “instructional materials with sexuality content.” Wallace said during the February vote that removing the poster avoided “logistical challenges” associated with notifying parents, The Enquirer reported.
The removal drew strong reaction in the district. In its aftermath, parents and students came out in droves at board meetings, claiming the issue prompted bullying at the high school and attracted national scrutiny to the Warren County district, according to The Enquirer. “A teacher hung a flag in his classroom for four years saying every student deserves to be treated with respect — and nobody had a problem with it until some school board members decided to make it one,” the teacher’s attorney, Josh Engel, previously told The Enquirer.
The ruling is the latest chapter in the district’s recurring debate over classroom displays. Little Miami previously made headlines in January 2025, when its board voted down a policy that would have required teachers to take down displays not directly related to their class curriculum, such as LGBTQ+ pride flags — a policy Wallace mainly supported, The Enquirer previously reported. Monday’s decision resolves the federal case McIntyre filed in Cincinnati in the district’s favor.