A Virginia school board has agreed to pay $575,000 in damages and attorney fees to a former high school teacher who was fired for refusing to use a transgender student’s preferred pronouns.
Peter Vlaming, a French teacher at West Point High School for seven years, lost his job after the school board voted unanimously to terminate him. Vlaming had declined to follow a district policy that required educators to refer to students by their chosen pronouns, even if they contradicted the student’s biological sex.
Following his dismissal, Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) filed a lawsuit against the school board in September 2019. According to ADF, “Vlaming tried to accommodate the student by consistently using the student’s new preferred name and by avoiding the use of pronouns altogether.” But school officials insisted that Vlaming use the preferred pronouns of the student even when the student wasn’t present.
“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 Tyson Langhofer, ADF senior counsel.
After a lower court initially struck down the case, the Virginia Supreme Court reinstated it, ruling that Vlaming’s religious freedom had been violated and that his firing constituted a breach of contract, according to CBS News. As part of the settlement, the school board will pay Vlaming $575,000 in compensation.
“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,” Peter 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,” he continued. “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.”
