Defamation in ‘Gender Queer’ debacle

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. — A federal court in Massachusetts allowed some of a middle-school teacher’s First Amendment, defamation and unlawful seizure claims to proceed against the town of Great Barrington and a police officer who investigated her for keeping Maia Kobabe’s book “Gender Queer: A Memoir” in her classroom. The cop placed himself between the teacher and the exit and did not indicate she was free to leave; a press release about the incident was arguably implied she was “routinely exposing children to illustrated images of child sex acts.”