A Virginia teacher who was fired for refusing to use a student’s “pronouns” has won a big lawsuit against the school.
French teacher Peter Vlaming sued the West Point School District in Virginia after officials fired him for refusing to bend to the woke transgender agenda.
Now the former teacher has won a $575,000 judgement against the school after claiming that the school violated his religious freedoms.
Per the New York Post:
“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 following the settlement agreement.
“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.”
The board fired Vlaming when he said he couldn’t in good conscience comply with the district superintendent’s demand he refer to a student by a pronoun inconsistent with their biological sex, according to ADF.
He “attempted to accommodate” the trans student by using his chosen name while avoiding using pronouns altogether, but the student, his parents and the school said he was required to use male pronouns, claiming refusal would violate the school’s anti-discrimination rules.
The school was not only ordered to pay the teacher, it was also required to expunge his record of being fired.
“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 in a statement.
“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. But he couldn’t in good conscience speak messages that he knew were untrue, and no school board or government official can punish someone for that reason.”
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