“A Virginia teacher who was fired six years ago for refusing to refer to a biologically female student as ‘he/him’ will be the recipient of an almost $600,000 settlement,” reports The College Fix:
French teacher Peter Vlaming was fired by the West Point School Board in December of 2018 based on a policy essentially invented “out of thin air.” After Vlaming inadvertently used “she” when referring to the student in “his” absence, the student requested a meeting upon hearing about it. Vlaming then met with the student and parents, whereupon one parent demanded he “leave his principles and beliefs out of this” and just use the male pronouns as requested.
Vlaming’s principal subsequently told him to “do whatever the parents ask,” and the assistant principal gave him documents from the National Center for Transgender Equality regarding “pronoun usage.” After another pronoun slip-up by Vlaming, the parents withdrew the student from his class. Vlaming was suspended for one month while the district looked into whether he violated its “harassment or retaliation” policy.
Superintendent Laura Abel required Vlaming to use male pronouns for the student “regardless of location or context, even outside of school.” When Vlaming said he could not “in good conscience” comply with such a demand, the school board fired him for violations of district nondiscrimination policy.
According to an Alliance Defending Freedom press release, the West Point School Board’s settlement with Vlaming includes $575,000 in damages and lawyers’ fees, and the removal of his termination from his record. Separately, the board agreed to “change its policies to conform to the new Virginia education policies established by Gov. Glenn Youngkin that respect fundamental free speech and parental rights.”
Vlaming sued over his dismissal. A progressive circuit judge dismissed his lawsuit, but in 2023, the Virginia Supreme Court reinstated his lawsuit in a 4-to-3 decision, with the Republican justices voting in Vlaming’s favor, and the Democratic justices voting against him.
Alliance Defending Freedom represented Peter Vlaming.
In the Virginia Suprmee Court, amicus briefs were filed in favor of Vlaming by a number of civil-liberties groups, such as the Liberty Justice Center, and by various people, such as former Education Department officials Hans Bader and Adam Kissel.
