A high school French teacher in Virginia has won $575,000 after being fired from his job for refusing to use a student’s “preferred pronouns.”
Peter Vlaming was a well-liked teacher at West Point High School. In 2018, when one of his female students began presenting as a male and using masculine pronouns, Vlaming wrestled with how to respond. He believes – for religious, philosophical and scientific reasons – that sex is an innate biological trait.
Vlaming tried to accommodate the student by using her new preferred name and avoiding the use of pronouns altogether.
But that wasn’t good enough for the West Virginia School Board. The superintendent demanded Vlaming refer to the student using pronouns inconsistent with her sex. When he refused, the school board fired him. In response, Vlaming filed a lawsuit against the school board with the help of Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF).
Last December, the Virginia Supreme Court ruled in Vlaming’s favor, issuing a landmark decision affirming that the Virginia Constitution protects public employees’ right to free speech and freely exercise their religion.
“Absent a truly compelling reason for doing so, no government committed to these principles can lawfully coerce its citizens into pledging verbal allegiance to ideological views that violate their sincerely held religious beliefs,” Justice D. Arthur Kelsey wrote in the court’s majority opinion.
Following that decision, the West Point School Board agreed to pay $575,000 in damages and attorneys’ fees to settle the lawsuit. The school board also cleared Vlaming’s record and changed its policies to conform to Virginia’s new education policies protecting parental rights.
“I was wrongfully fired from my teaching job because my religious beliefs put me on a collision course with school administrators who mandated that teachers ascribe to only one perspective on gender identity – their preferred view,” Vlaming said in a statement following the settlement.
I loved teaching French and gracefully tried to accommodate every student in my class, but I couldn’t say something that directly violated my conscience. I’m very grateful for the work of my attorneys at Alliance Defending Freedom to bring my case to victory, and hope it helps protect every other teacher and professor’s fundamental First Amendment rights.
You can watch a brief video recap of Vlaming’s case below:
“Peter wasn’t fired for something he said; he was fired for something he couldn’t say,” said ADF Senior Counsel Tyson Langhofer, director of the ADF Center for Academic Freedom.
The school board violated his First Amendment rights under the Virginia Constitution and commonwealth law.
As a teacher, Peter was passionate about the subject he taught, was well-liked by his students, and did his best to accommodate their needs and requests. But he couldn’t in good conscience speak messages that he knew were untrue, and no school board or government official can punish someone for that reason.
Vlaming’s victory after a drawn-out legal battle is a great win for free speech, religious liberty and biological reality. No one should be compelled by the government to speak messages they disagree with – including Christians who know sex is innate and immutable.
Congratulations to Peter Vlaming on his hard-fought and well-deserved victory.
The case is Vlaming v. West Point School Board.
Related articles and resources:
Responding to a Transgender-Identified Family Member
Gender Pronouns are the Catechism of a New Secular Faith Being Pushed on All of Us
Is it Ever Right to Use Personal Gender Pronouns?
Helping Kids Stand Firm While Navigating the Ever-Changing Landscape of Transgenderism
Free Speech Victory for Virginia Teacher Fired Over ‘Transgender’ Pronoun Policy
Teacher Fired For Not Using Student’s “Preferred Pronouns”
Photo from Alliance Defending Freedom.
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