Virginia teacher fired for refusing to use trans student's pronouns awarded $575,000

A Virginia teacher who bullied a student out of his class by refusing to use his correct pronouns has been awarded $575,000.

Peter Vlaming, a former French teacher at West Point High School, filed a lawsuit in 2019 after he was fired for discriminating against a student by refusing to use his pronouns in spite of direct orders. The suit claimed that his "conscience and religious practice prevents him from intentionally lying, and he sincerely believes that referring to a female as a male by using an objectively male pronoun is telling a lie."

The student, who was in ninth grade at the time, filed a complaint with the support of his parents after Vlaming's vehement refusal to refer to him accurately after his transition. While Vlaming agreed to use the student's new name, the student ultimately had to withdraw from Vlaming's class after the teacher continued to demean him and deny that he was a boy.

The West Point School Board voted 5-0 to fire Vlaming, with Superintendent Laura Abel saying at the time that his "discrimination leads to creating a hostile learning environment. And the student had expressed that. The parent had expressed that."

Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin's administration issued Department of Education policies in 2023 that require students be addressed based on their sex at birth. The guidelines mandate that unless a parent submits a written request, teachers and other school personnel cannot refer to a student by a different name or use preferred pronouns. The policies also mandate that students use the school facilities that correspond with the sex listed on their official records.

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Vlaming was represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a group dubbed a “Christian legal army” by its founder, which has a long history of opposing civil rights protections for LGBTQ+ people and has been dubbed by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group.

The group, which believes the “homosexual agenda” will destroy Christianity and society, has played a pivotal role in several cases involving abortion access and LGBTQ+ rights, including the Supreme Court case Dobbs v. Jackson’s Women’s Health Organization, which overturned the right to an abortion nationally, as well as Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado and 303 Creative, Inc. v. Elenis, which validated discrimination against LGBTQ+ customers on the basis of religious views.