Virginia school board appealing against reinstatement of teacher suspended for objecting to transgender policy
by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) – Virginia’s Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) board has said it is appealing against a Circuit Court order that reinstated Christian teacher Tanner Cross, who had been suspended for refusing to address children by a gender pronoun of the opposite sex, CBN News reports. LCPS said it “respectfully disagrees with the Circuit Court’s decision to order the reinstatement of Cross to his position at Leesburg Elementary school.
A PE teacher, Cross was placed on administrative leave after he attended a May 25 School Board meeting and objected to a proposed policy that would require staff to address pupils according to their preferred gender pronoun, rather than their biological sex.
Explaining his position last month, Cross told CBN: “I love all of my students, but I will never lie to them…I serve God first, and I will not affirm that a biological boy can be a girl, and vice versa…”
Cross filed suit against the LCPS suspension and, on June 8 the Loudoun County Circuit Court issued an injunction for his reinstatement: Judge James Plowman ruled that Cross had been exercising his right to free speech in raising his objections, and had been unfairly suspended.
However, on June 11, the LCPS issued a statement asserting its intention to file an appeal against the reinstatement ruling in the Supreme Court of Virginia.
“Leesburg Elementary School and Loudoun County Public Schools experienced – and continue to experience – significant disruption since the May 25 School Board meeting during which Cross addressed the board. Many students and parents at Leesburg Elementary have expressed fear, hurt and disappointment about coming to school,” the LCPS statement reads.
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