Virginia school board to pay $575K to a teacher fired for refusing to use trans student's pronouns
By: Yahoo News
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Associated PressOctober 1, 2024 at 4:00 PM·3 min read1Link Copied
WEST POINT, Va. (AP) — A Virginia school board has agreed to pay $575,000 in a settlement to a former high school teacher who was fired after he refused to use a transgender student's pronouns, according to the advocacy group that filed the suit.
Conservative Christian legal advocacy group Alliance Defending Freedom announced the settlement Monday, saying the school board also cleared Peter Vlaming's firing from his record. The former French teacher at West Point High School sued the school board and administrators at the school after he was fired in 2018. A judge dismissed the lawsuit before any evidence was reviewed, but the state Supreme Court reinstated it in December.
The Daily Press reported that West Point Public Schools Superintendent Larry Frazier confirmed the settlement and said in an email Monday that "we are pleased to be able to reach a resolution that will not have a negative impact on the students, staff or school community of West Point."
Vlaming claimed in his lawsuit that he tried to accommodate a transgender student in his class by using his name but avoided the use of pronouns. The student, his parents and the school told him he was required to use the student's male pronouns. Vlaming said he could not use the student's pronouns because of his "sincerely held religious and philosophical" beliefs "that each person's sex is biologically fixed and cannot be changed." Vlaming also said he would be lying if he used the student's pronouns.
Vlaming alleged that the school violated his constitutional right to speak freely and exercise his religion. The school board argued that Vlaming violated the school's anti-discrimination policy.
The state Supreme Court's seven justices agreed that two claims should move forward: Vlaming's claim that his right to freely exercise his religion was violated under the Virginia Constitution and his breach of contract claim against the school board.
But a dissenting opinion from three justices said the majority's opinion on his free-exercise-of-religion claim was overly broad and "establishes a sweeping super scrutiny standard with the potential to shield any person's objection to practically any policy or law by claiming a religious justification for their failure to follow either."
"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 an ADF news release. "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."
Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin's policies on the treatment of transgender students, finalized last year, rolled back many accommodations for transgender students urged by the previous Democratic administration, including allowing teachers and students to refer to a transgender student by the name and pronouns associated with their sex assigned at birth.
Attorney General Jason Miyares, also a Republican, said in a nonbinding legal analysis that the policies were in line with federal and state nondiscrimination laws and school boards must follow their guidance. Lawsuits filed earlier this year have asked the courts to throw out the policies and rule that school districts are not required to follow them.
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Be woke, go broke LMAO
How difficult is it to be respectful. I wonder how the asshole teacher would like it if everyone refered to him as her whether he liked it or not.
Where did the teacher disrespect anyone? The teacher was avoiding a conflict by using the student's name. The student was trying to force the teacher to use pronouns for their own selfish reasons.
The student was the fucking asshole. But that's not unusual for advocates of woke.
That’s not a bad strategy for the next teacher to go out of their way to be an asshole. Yes ma’am could be the reflexive response to anyone called on by Mr. Smith.
What do you not understand about his freedom of speech and going against his religious beliefs being violated?
Besides, he was telling the truth...the student was not a "her", but a emotionally fucked up male
I understand his ignorance cost the VA taxpayers $575,000...
It's their own damned fault for riding the Pronoun Express
It's not ignorance, it's a mental issue called gender dysphoria.
Are you ignorant of the fact he lost the case in court?
Would it be everyone else's freedom of speech to refer to this guy as she/her now that it's been found legal to so?
Irrelevant.
If someone asks to be referred one way and someone (especially one in authority) refused to do so it's disrespectful. Calling Japanese, Chinese or calling him, her are both acts of disrespect.
And going out of his way to be an ass.
What are you talking about? the teacher who sued the school won the court case. to the tune of 575 thousand dollars. the child with the mental illness wasn't even a party to the case.
According to the article, the teacher did not use any pronouns. The teacher only used the student's name.
Yes, the student was an ass trying to force the teacher to use pronouns. Apparently the student's name was unacceptable.
Which to you and I may sound just fine, but we weren't the offended party.
Perhaps both parties are being asses? It's not my point though. Why is it so difficult to accommodate non-traditional gender pronouns? I've read the Bible many times and his argument it offends his religious liberties doesn't hold water, unless as the Court argued we can then claim any rule we don't like offends our religion.
Maybe because teachers are expected to accurately and honestly discuss and teach reality according to objective facts. A teacher that presented flat earth as fact wouldn't be teaching very long.
A student may subjectively believe they are anything. But the teacher is expected to avoid subjectivity.
Dreamer
It isn't a matter of how difficult it is or isn't, nor is it a matter of being considerate or inconsiderate. It is a matter of whether one wishes to participate in reality or fantasy and whether anyone has the right to force that decision on someone else. If you, evilone, wish to support someone's delusion, feel free. But I'm certain you'd have something to say if I attempted to force you to refer to someone according to my values and beliefs. What is so difficult to understand about that?
Not referring to a student as they wish has nothing to do with teaching French. Try again.
His objection for not using non-traditional gender pronouns IS subjective.
People shouldn't participate in religious fantasies and force made up rules on others.
I accommodate the religious every day. It's polite. Matter of fact I insisted on a small religious ceremony for my mothers funeral next week, because it's what my mother would like and is what extended family members would find comforting. For me it will be boring and tedious but I'll endure without comment or complaint, because it's polite.
Example?
How difficult is it to not expect others to play fantasy games?
You misspelled "kids fantasy".
Does that not extend to pronouns?
Great! Isn't it nice that doing so is your choice rather than something you are forced to do?
Use your imagination.
They don't want to be left alone to dress as they please, which most people are quite happy to do. They demand others conform to their beliefs.
I didn't say anyone should be forced to do so, only that assholes like to find excuses not to.
Sorry... I'm in the midst of a full blown depression. Opening up those doors won't be useful to me, or those around me, but thanks anyway.
I know you didn't. However, this quote indicates that you think, on some level, it should. I do not agree with your position but I do not think you are an asshole for holding the position that you do. I think you are deluded, but I don't think you are an asshole. That is, just because someone doesn't agree with you doesn't make them an asshole.
Yep. I know what you mean. Sometimes I think my default setting is depression.
Common decency should compel someone to be kind & respectful. Teachers should be leading by example.
If asking people, especially people in positions of power over children, to be respectful is deluded then fine... I'm deluded. I find it a further sad commentary on modern society that people find it not only necessary to go out of their way not to be assholish, but pervert their religion to excuse their behavior.
Yes. However, common decency doesn't dictate belief. Only how one expresses their beliefs. Thus, teachers should not be teaching what to believe, as that is the province of parents but, rather, how to deal with those who have different beliefs.
The delusion doesn't come from demanding respectfulness. It comes from insisting on the delusion. It comes from insisting that the delusion is valid.
Here is how I see what you've said here. In order not to be an asshole, one must accept or accommodate whatever reality anyone else promotes. That is, in order not to be an asshole, I must negate what I see as reality in order to validate someone else's reality. Can you not see the obvious problem with that? Assuming you don't, why do they not have the same obligation? That is, why do they not have the same obligation to accommodate my reality?
Can you show somewhere that says you have the right not to be offended?
Now days, It depends on who is offended
Keep voting for dillweeds like that on your school boards dumbasses.
You deserve what you get.
Hmmm ... Free speech or expensive censorship? Guess it doesn't really matter since the taxpayers cover the costs. Too bad the student's family isn't on the hook to pay the tab.
IiMO, the students parents should be charged with child abuse
Just one word on the outcome. GOOD!