A charter school network in Nashville has removed books featuring LGBT themes from its elementary school libraries, months after a Christian teacher faced discipline for refusing to read one such book to his class. The move follows a dispute involving Eric Rivera, a first-grade teacher at KIPP Antioch College Prep Elementary School, who was issued a "final warning" after declining, on religious grounds, to read a book about same-sex parents. The case, highlighted by the religious liberty group First Liberty Institute, has drawn renewed attention to tensions between religious accommodation for teachers and the presence of LGBT-themed material in schools.

First Liberty Institute said KIPP Nashville voluntarily withdrew books promoting same-sex marriage, a decision the group's senior counsel called a win for parental rights under the Constitution and Tennessee law. The school had earlier cleared Rivera's disciplinary record after receiving a demand letter from First Liberty and agreed to let teachers ask a colleague to read materials they find religiously objectionable. Rivera said he was pleased parents now have the information needed to decide what is best for their children; KIPP Nashville has not yet commented publicly.