OAN Staff Brooke Mallory
2:19 PM – Wednesday, October 2, 2024
A former high school French teacher who was previously fired for refusing to acknowledge the pronouns of a student who identified as transgender has now received a settlement of $575,000 from the Virginia school board after a conservative advocacy group fought for him.
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The settlement was revealed on Monday by the conservative legal advocacy group Alliance Defending Freedom. The group also announced that the school board has now expunged Peter Vlaming’s termination from his record, a major win for the teacher’s career.
Following his firing from West Point High School in 2018, the former French teacher filed a lawsuit against the school’s management and school board. Before any evidence was considered, a court dismissed the claim. However, in December, the state Supreme Court reinstated it.
Superintendent Larry Frazier of West Point Public Schools confirmed the settlement, according to The Daily Press, and stated via email on Monday that “we are pleased to be able to reach a resolution that will not have a negative impact on the students, staff, or school community of West Point.”
In his lawsuit, Vlaming admitted that he avoided using pronouns and instead referred to the student by their name while they were in class. Soon after, the student, her parents, and the school demanded that Mr. Vlaming use the student’s preferred male pronouns.
However, due to his “sincerely held religious and philosophical” views that “each person’s sex is biologically fixed and cannot be changed,” which is also a biological fact of science, Vlaming maintained that he would not be using the student’s pronouns. He also noted that referring to the student by the opposite gender would be lying.
“It is important for healthcare practitioners to note that while a biological sex change is impossible— ‘legal’ sex can be changed,” according to the Clinical Advisory on Sex and Gender, a coalition made up of doctors and psychologists. “The practice of prescribing hormone blockers and cross-sex hormones for gender dysphoria should be scientifically scrutinized, as there is currently no robust evidence that they improve long-term outcomes and increasing concern around harms.”
The seven justices of the state Supreme Court decided to pursue two cases: Vlaming’s claim that the school board breached his contract, and his claim that his freedom to practice his faith was violated under the Virginia Constitution.
Three justices dissented from the majority, arguing that it was too broad to grant him the right to exercise his right to free exercise of religion and that it “establishes a sweeping super scrutiny standard with the potential to shield any person’s objection to practically any policy or law by claiming a religious justification for their failure to follow either.”
“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 asserted in a news release. “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.”
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