Virginia school board will pay $575,000 to teacher fired for refusing to use pronouns for transgender students

Former teacher Peter Vlaming will be awarded $575,000 in damages and legal fees after he was fired by a Virginia school board for failing to use the requested pronouns of a transgender student. Vlaming said he was “unfairly fired from his teaching job” because of his “religious beliefs.” Photo courtesy of Alliance Defending Freedom

“Peter wasn’t fired because of 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.

ADF attorneys filed the lawsuit in September 2019 after Vlaming — who had taught in the district for nearly seven years — was fired a year earlier for failing to use a student’s requested pronouns that were “inconsistent with the gender of the student.” “Students were compatible”. While Vlaming tried to accommodate the student by using his new name, school officials ordered the teacher to stop avoiding using the requested pronouns.

“I loved teaching French and tried politely to accommodate every student in my class, but I was not allowed to say anything that directly violated my conscience,” Vlaming said, adding that he was unfairly terminated because of his religious beliefs became.

“I was unfairly fired from my teaching job because my religious beliefs put me on a collision course with school administrators who dictated that teachers only represent one perspective on gender identity – their preferred perspective.”

In December, the Virginia Supreme Court reinstated Vlaming’s lawsuit, alleging that school administrators violated Vlaming’s right to free exercise of religion.

“Without a truly compelling reason for doing so, no government committed to these principles can lawfully compel its citizens to swear verbal allegiance to ideological views that violate their sincerely held religious beliefs,” Justice D. Arthur Kelsey wrote in the majority opinion of last year.

West Point Public Schools has agreed to change its rules to align with Virginia’s new education policy, which calls for respect for free speech and parents’ rights. The guidelines, which drew criticism from LGBTQ groups when introduced in 2022, allow teachers to refer to transgender students by the name and pronouns associated with their gender assigned at birth.

West Point Public Schools told The Washington Post on Monday it was pleased to have reached an agreement with Vlaming.

“Our focus is on all students and our goal is to continue to build positive relationships within our school division community,” said Superintendent Larry L. Frazier Jr.

With the settlement, ADF’s lawyers filed for voluntary dismissal Vlaming v. West Point School Board.