Virginia school board settles with fired teacher over trans student pronouns

A Virginia school board has agreed to pay $575,000 in a settlement to a former high school teacher who was fired after refusing to use the pronoun of a transgender student, according to the advocacy group that filed the lawsuit.

The conservative Christian legal advocacy group Alliance Defending Freedom announced the settlement Monday, saying the school board also expunged the firing of Peter Vlaming from its record. The former West Point High School French teacher sued the school board and school administrators after he was fired in 2018. A judge dismissed the lawsuit before any evidence was reviewed, but the state Supreme Court reinstated it 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 negatively impact students, staff or the West school community. Point.”

Vlaming claimed in his lawsuit that he tried to accommodate a transgender student in his class by using his name but avoided using pronouns. The student, his parents, and the school told him he had to use the student’s male pronouns. Vlaming said he could not use the student’s pronoun because of his “sincere religious and philosophical” beliefs “that each person’s gender is biologically fixed and cannot be changed.” Vlaming also said he would be lying if he used the student’s pronouns.

Vlaming claimed the school violated his constitutional right to free speech and exercise his religion. The school board alleged that Vlaming violated the school’s anti-discrimination policy.

The seven justices of the state Supreme Court agreed that two claims should go forward: Vlaming’s claim that his right to freely exercise his religion was violated under the Virginia Constitution, and his claim of violation of contract against the school board.

But a dissenting opinion by three justices said the majority’s holding of its free exercise of religion claim was too broad and “sets a sweeping super-scrutiny standard with the potential to shield any individual’s objection to the practical any policy or law by upholding a religious right. justification for their failure to follow none.”

“I was wrongfully fired from my teaching position because my religious beliefs put me on a collision course with school administrators who mandated that teachers assign only one perspective on gender identity—their preferred view,” Vlaming said in an ADF press release. “I enjoyed teaching French and I tried gracefully to accommodate all the students in my class, but I couldn’t say anything that would directly violate my conscience.”

Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s policies on the treatment of transgender students, finalized last year, reversed many accommodations for transgender students urged by the previous Democratic administration, including allowing faculty and students to refer to a transgender student by their associated names and pronouns. the sex assigned at birth.

Attorney General Jason Miyares, also a Republican, said in a nonbinding legal review that the policies comply with federal and state nondiscrimination laws and that school boards must follow their guidelines. Lawsuits filed earlier this year asked the courts to throw out the policies and rule that school districts are not required to follow them.

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Virginia K-12