Virginia school board to pay out $575,000 to high school teacher fired over refusing to use trans pronouns

A Virginia school board agreed Monday to pay $575,000 in damages and attorneys fees to a former high school teacher it fired because he refused to refer to a transgender student with the pronouns the pupil requested, UPI reported.

West Point School Board has not only agreed to the financial settlement and to remove any record of Peter Vlaming’s firing but also to change its policies to conform to the new Virginia education policies of Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R-VA) that protect free speech and parental rights, according to the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), which filed the lawsuit on Vlaming’s behalf.

"Peter wasn't fired for something he said; he was fired for something he couldn't say. The school board violated his First Amendment rights under the Virginia Constitution and commonwealth law," said ADF senior counsel Tyson Langhofer. "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. We’re pleased to favorably settle this case on behalf of Peter and hope other government and school officials will take note of the high cost involved in failing to respect an American’s constitutionally protected freedoms."

ADF attorneys sued the school board in September 2019, after Vlaming, who had taught in the district for almost seven years, had been dismissed for refusing to use the requested pronouns of a student. Vlaming wouldn’t do so because he said the pronouns were "inconsistent with the student's sex." While Vlaming even appeased the student by using the pupil’s new name, the school told the teacher that he had to use the requested pronouns as well.

"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," Vlaming said.

"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."

In December, Virginia's Supreme Court agreed that Vlaming's lawsuit could proceed because it said the school was infringing upon the teacher’s freedom of 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 last year's majority opinion.

West Point Public Schools can no longer remove teachers over pronoun issues and has agreed to follow Virginia’s new education policies that emphasize free speech and the right of parents to know if children change their pronouns. Teachers can refer to students on the basis of their biological sex.

West Point Public Schools told The Washington Post on Monday it was satisfied to put the matter behind them. "Our focus is on all students, and our goal is to continue to build positive relationships throughout our school division community," said schools superintendent Larry L. Frazier Jr.