US Court Backs Teacher Refusing Transgender Pronouns
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
RICHMOND, USA (Worthy News) – The highest court of the U.S. state of Virginia has revived a lawsuit filed by a French high school teacher fired for refusing to use the preferred pronouns of an apparently female student claiming to be male.
The Virginia Supreme Court, in a unanimous ruling, said Peter Vlaming could pursue claims that the school board in the Richmond suburb of West Point violated his rights under the state Constitution to free exercise of religion.
The court split 4-3, reviving his free speech and due process claims.
Vlaming said he was dismissed from West Point High School in 2018 after he declined on religious grounds to refer to “a biologically female student” with male pronouns.
Instead, he offered to refer to the student by a male name and not use feminine pronouns like she or her.
The school says he was fired after he referred to the student as “her” during a class exercise, which he says was an accident, and again refused to begin using male pronouns.
The school board accused him of “engaging in discrimination” based on the student’s gender identity.
SCHOOL COMPLAINT
Vlaming filed a complaint against school officials in 2019, with the King William Circuit Court rejecting his lawsuit, prompting Vlaming to appeal to the state supreme court in 2021.
On Thursday, the Virginia Supreme Court agreed that he could continue his lawsuit against the local school where he taught French for seven years.
The Court said gender identity is a sensitive topic, and individuals’ beliefs on the matter lay at the heart of constitutional protections on speech and the exercise of religion.
“Compelling an educator’s speech or silence on such a divisive issue would cast a pall of orthodoxy over the classroom on a topic that has produced a passionate political and social debate,” Justice D. Arthur Kelsey wrote.
Vlaming is represented by Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a prominent conservative Christian legal group. Chris Schandevel, a lawyer with the group, said the ruling was an important vindication of Vlaming’s constitutional rights.
“Peter wasn’t fired for something he said; he was fired for something he couldn’t say,” Schandevel said after reinstating the lawsuit. “The Virginia Supreme Court rightly agreed that Peter’s case against the school board for violating his rights under the Virginia Constitution and state law should proceed. 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.”
However, the lawyer noted that the teacher “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.”
‘SCHOOL CRUSADE’
Also, “The school board didn’t care how well Peter treated this student. It was on a crusade to compel conformity,” added Caleb Dalton, ADF’s senior council.
The case highlights increasingly prevalent state and school policies on the use of pronouns in schools, which in turn have fed into a broader debate over religious rights in the workplace.
Many school districts require staff to use students’ preferred pronouns, while several Republican-led states have barred such policies.
In 2021, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals revived claims that an Ohio state university violated the constitutional rights of a professor by disciplining him for refusing to use a student’s preferred pronouns.
But in April, the 7th Circuit ruled that an Indiana high school did not violate federal anti-discrimination law by forcing a music teacher to quit after refusing on religious grounds to use transgender students’ preferred names.
Weeks later, in June, the U.S. Supreme Court bolstered the ability of employees to obtain accommodations for their religious practices.
It also revived a lawsuit by a Christian mail carrier who was disciplined for refusing to work on Sundays.
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