(Maire Clayton, Headline USA) Five years since he was fired for refusing to use a student’s non-biological pronouns, a high-school teacher in Virginia is receiving a $575,000 settlement.
The West Point School Board agreed to pay former French teacher Peter Vlaming, clear his 2018 firing from the record and change its policies to align with the 2023 education policies passed by Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin.
‼️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
Representing Vlaming was the pro-liberty conservative legal watchdog Alliance Defending Freedom.
“Peter wasn’t fired for something he said; he was fired for something he couldn’t say,” said Tyson Langhofer, ADF senior counsel and director of the Center for Academic Freedom, according to a press release. “The school board violated his First Amendment rights under the Virginia Constitution and commonwealth law.”
The win came after the Virginia Supreme Court decided to reinstate the lawsuit in December 2023, ruling that the Virginia Constitution “seeks to protect diversity of thought, diversity of speech, diversity of religion, and diversity of opinion.”
Before Vlaming was fired, he attempted to avoid the use of pronouns and instead referred to the student only by name. However, the school insisted he use the student’s preferred pronouns rather than avoid the use of pronouns altogether, effectively compelling Vlaming to speak against his beliefs.
“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,” Vlaming said.
“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,” he added.
He expressed his gratitude to ADF for helping him bring the case, saying he hoped it would help to “protect every other teacher and professor’s fundamental First Amendment rights.”
Vlaming’s lawyers filed to dismiss the lawsuit Monday in lieu of the settlement that was reached.
