Peter Vlaming, a high school French teacher, was dismissed after declining to refer to a biologically female student with male pronouns. He did, however, use the student’s preferred name in place of the student’s legal name. As part of the settlement, the school board will remove Vlaming’s termination from his record. The board has also revised its policies to comply with new state education guidelines issued by Gov. Glenn Youngkin, which emphasize free speech protections and parental rights. “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, director of the ADF Center for Academic Freedom, who represented Vleming in the case. “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,” Langhofer added. “We’re pleased to favorably settle this case on behalf of Peter and hope other government and school officials will take note of the high cost involved in failing to respect an American’s constitutionally protected freedoms.”A public school district in Virginia has agreed to pay $575,000 to settle a lawsuit brought by a Christian teacher who was terminated for refusing to use a transgender student’s preferred pronouns.
‼️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
The lawsuit was originally filed in 2019, following Vlaming’s dismissal by the West Point School Board.
Vlaming had attempted to avoid conflict by using the student’s preferred name and avoiding pronouns altogether. However, school officials ordered him to use male pronouns, which were inconsistent with the student’s biological sex.
In December, the Virginia Supreme Court reinstated Vlaming’s lawsuit after a lower court dismissed it without hearing evidence. The high court criticized the dismissal and reaffirmed that the state constitution “seeks to protect diversity of thought, diversity of speech, diversity of religion, and diversity of opinion.”
“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. “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.”
