A Christian teacher was sacked for declining to use a trans pupil’s preferred pronouns as it went against his religious beliefs.
Peter Vlaming was a teacher at West Point High School, in West Point, Virginia, USA, when he refused to refer to a biological female student with male pronouns.
Last year, the Supreme Court of Virginia ruled that the school had breached Vlaming’s freedom of expression rights.
The school board has now agreed to pay $575,000 (£433,000) in damages and legal fees.
Peter Vlaming was sacked for declining to use a trans pupil’s preferred pronouns as it went against his religious beliefs
Alliance Defending Freedom
The court was told that he had been teaching French at West Point High for six years when he learned, in the 2017-18 school year, that one of his pupils – who was biologically a female – was planning to transition to male.
Vlaming claimed that he learned the student preferred to be addressed using masculine pronouns, a request that conflicted with his Christian convictions – his beliefs held that “a person’s sex is immutable and cannot be altered.”
In consideration of the student’s wishes, the French teacher addressed the child by their newly chosen name but deliberately refrained from using third-person pronouns.
The Supreme Court heard that in October 2018, Vlaming met with the student to explain his practice of not using pronouns in class.
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:
He later received a phone call from the child’s parents, when was allegedly told he “should leave his principles and beliefs out of this”.
Vlaming met with assistant principal Suzanne Aunspach and was reportedly told “that he should be aware of the law” and was referred to documents by the National Center for Transgender Equality which states that transgender students have the legal “right to be addressed by the names and pronouns that they use”.
It was also claimed that the teacher was 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 was later issued with a final warning after another pronoun incident, which he claimed was “accidental”.
The court was told that Vlaming rejected a written directive ordering him to use masculine pronouns to refer to the student – the school board then sacked him.
The school board has now agreed to pay Peter Vlaming $575,000 (£433,000) in damages and legal fees
Alliance Defending Freedom
After suing the school on the grounds that his First Amendment rights had been impinged upon, a circuit court ruled against him.
However, the state’s Supreme Court said his rights had been violated. It ruled: “No government can lawfully coerce its citizens into pledging verbal allegiance to ideological views that violate their sincerely held religious beliefs”.
The school has changed its policies to comply with to the new Virginia education policies that respect fundamental free speech and parental rights.
Vlaming said that he hoped his ruling “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.”