A Virginia school board has been ordered to pay more than $500,000 to a former French teacher who was fired after he refused to use a transgender student’s “preferred pronouns.”
The teacher, Peter Vlaming, filed a lawsuit against the district with help from Christian legal group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) after he was fired in 2018. The lawsuit argued that Vlaming’s termination constituted a violation of his religious beliefs.
“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,” Vlaming said in a statement after the settlement was awarded.
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“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.”
‼️VICTORIOUS SETTLEMENT‼️
VA school board will pay $575K & change policies to end our lawsuit on behalf of teacher Peter Vlaming who was wrongly fired for declining to use inaccurate pronouns.
No government should force its employees (or anyone else) to voice their allegiance… pic.twitter.com/lpltT7PfR4
— Alliance Defending Freedom (@ADFLegal) October 1, 2024
Vlaming taught French at West Point High School in Virginia for nearly ten years prior to the incident that led to his firing. In 2018, he was placed on administrative leave after he objected to addressing a biological female student with male pronouns.
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The teacher had attempted to avoid pronouns altogether in order to best accommodate everybody. He also agreed to address the student by their new, masculine name rather than her birth name.
This was not good enough for the district, however, as Vlaming was ordered to stop avoiding pronoun usage. He was also instructed to refer to the student by her preferred pronouns. Soon afterwards, the board voted to fire him after he accidentally referred to the student with feminine pronouns.
Vlaming sued the school board for violating his rights under the Virginia Constitution and commonwealth law stating in his lawsuit that his religion “prohibits him from intentionally lying” and that he “sincerely believes that referring to a female as a male by using an objectively male pronoun is telling a lie,” CBN reported.
A lower court initially dismissed the case, though Vlaming ultimately appealed to the Virginia Supreme Court in 2021. The high court then ruled that the teacher’s rights were violated and chastised the lower court for attempting to dismiss the case.
“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 ADF Senior Counsel Tyson Langhofer.
The district has now agreed to settle the case and has been ordered to pay Vlaming $575,000 in damages and attorney fees. His professional record will also be cleared.
The district has also amended its policies to reflect Virginia Governor Glen Youngkin’s directives to uphold free speech and parental rights in education.
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