Cameron Henderson
01 October 2024 5:42pm
A Christian teacher has been fired for refusing to use a transgender student’s preferred pronouns.
Peter Vlaming lost his job at West Point High School, in West Point, Virginia, after insisting that referring to a biologically female student by male pronouns went against his religious beliefs.
Now, the school board has agreed to pay out $575,000 (£433,000) in damages and legal fees after the Supreme Court of Virginia ruled last year that the school had violated Mr Vlaming’s freedom of expression rights.
Following the ruling, Mr Vlaming said that he hoped his victory “helps protect every other teachers’ and professors’ fundamental First Amendment 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,” Mr Vlaming said.
“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.”
Mr Vlaming had taught French at West Point High for six years when, towards the end of the 2017-18 school year, he learned that one of his students, who was biologically a female, was intending to transition to male, the supreme court was told.
In the autumn term, Mr Vlaming alleged he became aware that the child wanted to be referred to by masculine pronouns: a request that went against his Christian beliefs. His faith taught Mr Vlaming that “sex is fixed in each person, and cannot be changed”.
According to the complaint, “Mr Vlaming’s conscience and religious practice prohibits him from intentionally lying, and he sincerely believes that referring to a female as a male by using an objectively male pronoun is telling a lie”.
Out of respect for his student’s preferences, the French teacher used the child’s new preferred name but avoided using the third-person pronoun.
In October 2018, Mr Vlaming met with the student to explain his practice of not using pronouns in class, and thought the meeting went well. However, in a phone call with the child’s parents later that day, he was allegedly told he “should leave his principles and beliefs out of this”.
In the following days, Mr Vlaming met with assistant principal Suzanne Aunspach to discuss his treatment of the child and was told “that he should be aware of the law”, he alleged.
Right of address
He was referred to documents prepared by the National Center for Transgender Equality asserting that transgender students have the legal “right to be addressed by the names and pronouns that they use”.
The court heard he was also told that “personal religious beliefs end at the school door” and that he “should use male pronouns or his job could be at risk”, he alleged.
After a further incident which Mr Vlaming claimed was accidental, he was suspended and issued with a final warning.
When Mr Vlaming refused to comply with a written directive ordering him to use masculine pronouns to refer to the student, the school board sacked him, the court heard.
Mr Vlaming later sued the school on the grounds that his First Amendment rights had been impinged upon, but a circuit court ruled against him.
However, the state’s supreme court ruled in December that it would reinstate the lawsuit against the school, because it said Mr Vlaming’s rights had been violated.
Now, as well as the payout, the school has changed its policies to conform to the new Virginia education policies that respect fundamental free speech and parental rights.
In its ruling, the court said: “No government can lawfully coerce its citizens into pledging verbal allegiance to ideological views that violate their sincerely held religious beliefs.”
Chris Schandevel, Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) senior counsel who argued on behalf of Mr Vlaming, said: “Peter wasn’t fired for something he said; he was fired for something he couldn’t say.
“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 doesn’t believe to be true, and no school board or government official can punish someone for that reason.”
The post Christian teacher fired for refusing to use transitioning pupil’s pronouns appeared first on The Telegraph.
