An attorney, who recently won a case involving a Virginia school board firing a teacher refusing to use a student’s preferred pronouns, told Fox News Digital that the settlement has "seismic implications."
"We’re grateful that, because of this decision, tolerance is now a two‐way street, not a one‐way ratchet for totalitarian ideology," Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) President and CEO Kristen Waggoner told Fox News Digital on Friday.
The Virginia-based West Point School Board agreed to pay a former high school teacher, Peter Vlaming, $575,000 in damages and attorney’s fees after he refused to call a transgender student by their preferred pronouns.
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The Virginia-based West Point School Board agreed to pay a former high school teacher, Peter Vlaming, $575,000 in damages and attorney’s fees after he refused to call a transgender student by their preferred pronouns.
"It protects all teachers in Virginia and its rationale should guide other courts addressing similar issues," Waggoner said.
She also said that the ADF represents many other teachers facing similar situations in other states and how "no teacher should be fired for living according to their beliefs or protecting their students."
The settlement stems from a lawsuit filed by ADF against the school board in September 2019. Vlaming, who taught French at West Point High School for 7 years, lost his job after the board made the unanimous 5-0 decision to fire him. A devout Christian, Vlaming said he could not comply with the school district’s policy to refer to students with pronouns inconsistent with their biological sex.
According to the ADF, "Vlaming tried to accommodate the student by consistently using the student’s new preferred name and by avoiding the use of pronouns altogether."
However, school officials were obstinate that Vlaming used the student's preferred pronouns and also to use them "even when the student wasn’t present," ADF claimed.
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Several months before Vlaming's court victory, the Virginia Supreme Court reinstated the case after it was stuck down in a lower court. According to the Virginia Mercury, the King William Circuit Court "did not believe Vlaming had any valid reasons for the law to accept his suit."
"However, the Supreme Court determined in December that the school board violated Vlaming’s rights," the outlet reported.
An attorney, who recently won a case involving a Virginia school board firing a teacher for refusing to use a student’s pronouns, told Fox News Digital that the settlement has "seismic implications." (iStock)
The board did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.
"Peter’s Christian faith prevented him from lying to his students about biological reality by using pronouns inconsistent with a student’s sex," ADF attorney Waggoner told Fox News Digital. "Since his victory in court, we have seen overwhelming gratitude and support on social media from people who, like Peter, teach or work in places that might punish them for living according to their beliefs."
In addition to the cash settlement, Vlaming scored another win after the case.
The settlement agreement authorized that Vlaming’s record be cleared, and that the West Point School Board’s policies to "respect free speech."
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Peter Vlaming is allowed to go back to teaching and his former colleagues at West Point School can also do their jobs "without fear of retribution for living consistent with their faith and biological reality," the attorney told Fox News Digital.
The French teacher is allowed to go back to teaching and his former colleagues at West Point School can also do their jobs "without fear of retribution for living consistent with their faith and biological reality," the attorney added.
"I am so relieved that our fundamental rights of freedom of expression and freedom of religion were upheld," Vlaming told Fox News Digital. "However, it still bewilders me that a legal battle was necessary to reiterate that thought police and compelled speech are antithetical to the foundations of Virginian and American society; not to mention western civilization. How did we arrive at such a point today in America?"